How Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes are Transformed into Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes during Heat Treatment

Abstract

High-pressure carbon monoxide (HiPCO) single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were heat treated at high temperatures from 1700 to 3000 degrees C. During the heating below 2500 degrees C, the diameters of the SWCNTs gradually increase from similar to 1.0 to >1.5 nm, and at the temperatures higher than 2500 degrees C, double-, triple-, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) appear as a consequence of the coalescence of SWCNT bundles. It is surprising that most MWCNTs have odd number of walls, such as 3 or 5. The even-odd number effect agrees well with the mechanism of SWCNT bundle coalescence proposed by Lopez, M. J. et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 2002, 89, 255501], in which an SWCNT that templated the layer by layer coalescence of surrounding SWCNTs is responsible for the enrichment of MWCNTs with odd number of walls. This study confirms the mechanism of SWCNT bundle coalescence, discovers an interesting odd-even number of walls effect in the consequent MWCNTs, and suggests that it is possible to obtain structure-controllable MWCNTs via SWCNT bundle coalescence.