Abstract
The rolling up of a graphene sheet into a tube is a standard visualization tool for illustrating carbon nanotube (CNT) formation. However, the actual processes of rolling up graphene sheets into CNTs in laboratory syntheses have never been demonstrated. Here we report conformal growth of graphene by carbon self-assembly on single-wall and multi-wall CNTs using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of methane without the presence of metal catalysts. The new graphene layers roll up into seamless coaxial cylinders encapsulating the existing CNTs, but their adhesion to the primary CNTs is weak due to the existence of lattice misorientation. Our study shows that graphene nucleation and growth by self-assembly of carbon on the inactive carbon basal plane of CNTs occurs by a new mechanism that is markedly different from epitaxial growth on metal surfaces, opening up the possibility of graphene growth on many other non-metal substrates by simple methane CVD.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2353 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2013 |
Funding
Z.W.P. acknowledges funding by U.S. NSF (CAREER DMR-0955908). K.Y.L. thanks the financial support from the China Scholarship Council. G.E. acknowledges funding by the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, Office of Basic Energy Science, U.S. Department of Energy. Z.J.G. acknowledges support by the National Basic Research Programs of China (973 program, No. 2012CB932504). The microscopy work was sponsored by Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Shared Research Equipment (ShaRE) User Program, which is sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division of the Office of Basic Energy Science.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| U.S. NSF | DMR-0955908 |
| National Science Foundation | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences | 0955908 |
| Basic Energy Sciences | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering | |
| China Scholarship Council | |
| National Key Research and Development Program of China | 2012CB932504 |