Hopping growth mechanism of single carbon nanotubes synthesized by the CVD technique

Careful preparation of iron nano-particles catalyst for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) synthesis has crucial importance for their initial growth process, what determines CNTs physical and chemical properties, such as their diameters, wall geometry, electronic structure, defects presence, etc. At present we are not able to control all factors influencing the growth of CNTs especially the geometry of the outermost shell, the numbers of shells, their external and internal diameters, the presence of different kinds of defects. Carbon offers the greatest variety of allotropic forms among all elements and it can also form one of the longest one-dimensional objects with an ordered structure and very high aspect ratio. This great structural diversity of carbon nano-objects suggests that there is great chance for their serious applications in the 21st nano-electronic century.