We report the synthesis of highly crystallized multiwalled carbon nanotubes through a modified Wolff-Kishner reduction process at a low temperature of 180 degrees C without adding the conventional catalysts of Fe/Co/Ni into the reaction vessel. The as-synthesized carbon nanotubes are about 10-40 nm in diameter and several tens of micrometers in length. The experimental results indicate that a h...

Here we report on the gas sensing properties of multiwalled carbon nanotubes decorated with sputtered Pt or Pd nanoparticles. Sputtering allows for an oxygen plasma treatment that removes amorphous carbon from the surface of the carbon nanotubes and creates oxygenated surface defects in which metal nanoparticles nucleate within a few minutes. The decoration with the 2 nm Pt or the 3 nm Pd nanop...

The synthesis of the gas chromatography stationary phase by molecular self-assembly of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) via a novel ethanol chemical vapor deposition process is presented. A major advantage is that ethanol was found to be an excellent carbon source that generated highly pure multiwalled carbon nanotubes with very little nontubular carbon impurities. The nanotubes were not vertically alig...

Carbon nanotube membranes were fabricated using arrays of millimeter-long multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with an inner diameter of about 8 nm through a low-cost cast­polishing method. The fabricated carbon nanotube membranes demonstrated a unique ionic rectification phenomenon through two fundamentally different mechanisms: a) the formation ofmetal ion complexes and b) the precipitation ...

Composite made of multiwalled carbon nanotubes coated with silver was fabricated by an electroless deposition process. The thickness of silver layer is about 40 to 60 nm, characterized as nano-crystalline with (111) crystal orientation along the nanotube's axial direction. The characterization of silver/carbon nanotube [Ag/CNT] nanowire has shown the large current carrying capability, and the e...

Carbon nanotubes are usually imaged with the atomic force microscope (AFM) in non-contact mode. However, in many applications, such as mechanical manipulation or elasticity measurements, contact mode is used. The forces affecting the nanotube are then considerable and not fully understood. In this work lateral forces were measured during contact mode imaging with an AFM across a carbon nanotube...

We report an experimental and a theoretical study of the radial elasticity of multiwalled carbon nanotubes as a function of external radius. We use atomic force microscopy and apply small indentation amplitudes in order to stay in the linear elasticity regime. The number of layers for a given tube radius is inferred from transmission electron microscopy, revealing constant ratios of external to...

We devise an approach to describe the electronic instabilities of doped multiwalled nanotubes, where each shell has in general a manifold of Fermi points. Our analysis relies on the scale dependence of the different scattering processes, showing that a pairing instability arises for a large enough number of Fermi points as a consequence of their particular geometric arrangement. The instability...

Single electron transistors (SET) are fabricated from multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) by manipulation with an atomic force microscope. The devices consist of either a single MWNT with Au contacts at the ends or of two crossing tubes. In the latter device, the lower nanotube acted as the central island of a single electron transistor while the upper one functioned as a gate electrode. Coulom...

Electrostatically actuated nanoelectromechanical switches based on intershell displacement mechanisms within batch fabricated, bidirectional multiwalled carbon nanotube MWNT bearings are reported. Multiple devices with a 220 nm pitch are constructed within individual MWNT supermolecules. Experimental results on performance metrics including low switching voltages 0.8 to 6 V , repeatability, hys...