Self-templated growth of carbon-nanotube walls at high temperatures

Self-templated growth of carbon nanotube walls at high temperature was carried out in a JEOL 2010F high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), which was equipped with a Nanofactory TEM-STM (scanning tunneling microscopy) platform. In situ microstructure investigations indicated that the thickening of the multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) was attributed to a layer-by-layer self-templated growth mechanism. Two types of edge dislocation including sandwich type, with extra graphene plane that resided between two neighboring graphene layers and the Y type that posses extra plane being bonded to one of the neighboring graphene layer. It was found that the nanotube walls grew at the expense of disordered carbon or adatoms in both cases. The result show that a noncatalytic layer-by-layer self templated growth mechanism of carbon nanotube walls when the nanotubes are Joule heated to about 2000° C inside a HRTEM.