Single-walled carbon nanotubes produced by laser ablation under different inert atmospheres

In this work, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been produced under atmospheres of argon, nitrogen, mixture of argon/nitrogen, and helium using a continuous wave mode CO2 laser. High amount of SWNT material was achieved when argon and nitrogen and its mixture were employed as buffer gases, both under static and dynamic conditions, as it was observed by electron microscopy. In contrast to the arc-discharge method, very low yields were obtained working under helium atmospheres.