Minimal bundling of single-walled carbon nanotubes comprising vertically aligned films

摘要

A freestanding film of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes(VA-SWNTs) synthesized by the alcohol catalytic chemical vapor deposition(ACCVD) method was observed directly by transmission electron microscopy (TEM).These observations revealed that the film is comprised primarily of small SWNTbundles, typically containing 3-8 SWNTs. The lack of significant bundling issupported by electron diffraction spectra, in which no bundle peak is observed,and by electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), which shows minimal dielectricscreening. This indicates the electrical properties of the VA-SWNT film aredominated by the one-dimensional nature of SWNTs, rather than behaving as abulk material.