Plasma enhanced techniques are widely used for synthesis of carbon nanostructures. The primary focus of this paper is to summarize recent experimental and theoretical advances in understanding of single-wall carbon nanotube SWNT synthesis mechanism in arcs, and to describe methods of controlling arc plasma parameters. Fundamental issues related to synthesis of SWNTs, which is a relationship bet...

A steady wire-to-plane electric discharge has been modeled in a prolate spheroidal coordinate system with the wire shape taken as a hyperboloid of revolution. A set of continuum conservation equations for the charged particle densities and temperatures together with Poisson’s equation for the self-consistent electric potential describe the steady electric discharge process. These equations have...

Complex structures of carbon nanotubes formed from a conventional carbon arc-discharge method have been revealed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy ~HRTEM!. The branching and the droplet growth phenomena observed by HRTEM indicate that the formation and growth of carbon nanotubes from an arc-discharge method cannot be simply processed from one end to another. Based on the obser...

Mg–Cu alloy nanoparticles were in situ prepared by a physical vapor condensation method (arc discharge) in a mixture of argon and hydrogen. Four crystalline phases, Mg, Mg2Cu, MgCu2 and MgO, were formed simultaneously during the arc-discharge evaporation. Detailed experiments revealed that nanostructured hydrogen-active phases of Mg2Cu and Mg exhibit enhanced hydrogen absorption kinetics possib...

Single walled carbon nanotubes ~SWNT! produced by the anodic arc discharge over a range of constant background pressures of helium ~100–1000 Torr! were examined under a high-resolution transmission electron microscope, and a Raman spectrometer. It was found that the average SWNT diameter is about 2 nm and fairly independent of the background pressure. Analysis of the relative purity of SWNTs sa...