Seeds of selective nanotube growth

摘要

The wonderful thing about single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is that more than 100 species can be produced by various growth methods. But this is also the most frustrating thing about them. It is expected that different nanotube species will have different applications, but the nanotubes generally form as mixtures of around 5-50 species from any preparation method. Moreover, separation methods are cumbersome because of the many species that can form. After many attempts over the past two decades to grow single species of SWCNTs, Sanchez-Valencia et al. present a route to success on page 61 of this issue.