Highly purified single-walled carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotube, also called buckytubes, are nanoscale hollow tubes composed of carbon atoms. The cylindrical carbon molecules feature high aspect ratios. This unique one-dimensional structure and concomitant properties endow carbon nanotubes with special natures, rendering them with unlimited potential in nanotechnology-associated applications. Carbon nanotubes are members of the fullerene family. A single-walled carbon nanotube can be described as a long tube formed by wrapping a single graphene sheet into a cylinder with diameter of about one nanometer, the ends of which are capped by fullerene cages. The fullerene structures, with alternating structures of five hexagons adjacent to one pentagon, form the surface with desired curvature to enclose the volume. Other polygon structures, such as pentagons and heptagons, constitute defects of sidewalls. The cylindrical sidewalls can be produced from different rolling directions to make single-walled carbon nanotubes with distinct structures and properties. Contributor: Junjie Chen, ORCID: 0000-0001-5055-4309, E-mail address: [e-mail], Department of Energy and Power Engineering, School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, 2000 Century Avenue, Jiaozuo, Henan, 454000, P.R. China