CARBON NANO TUBES

ALLOTROPES

What is an allotrope?
Two or more physical forms in which an element
can exist.
 Consists of carbon
atoms that are
tetrahedrally bonded
to each other through
Sp3 hybrid bond
forming a
3dimensional network
 It is a layered
structure.

Formed by hexagons
of carbon atoms bound
together by Sp2
hybrid bonds.

The hexagonal sheet

held together by
Vander waals force.
60 carbon atoms
bonded in the shape of
a sphere- fullerene.
Named after its
inventor
R.Buckminister Fuller
 A single layer of
graphite is called
graphene.
 CARBON NANOTUBES

Tubular form of carbon

with nanoscale diameter

Folding a 2D sheet of
graphene in different
directions with a diameter
in order of few nm.

Length to diameter ratio

exceeds 10,000.

Electronic properties
depend on direction of
folding
Single-walled carbon nanotubes. A tower of multiwalled carbon Nanotubes.
They were
discovered
in 1991 by
the
Japanese
electron
microscopi
st Sumio
Iijima .
 CNT can be produced with different types of chirality.

Chirality- Orientation of the hexagons formed by the

carbon atoms with respect to tube axis.

Two tubes with same diameter may have different

structures.
 Wrapping (10,0) SWNT (Animation)

(0,0)
Ch = (10,0)

y
a1
a2 13
x
Prof. S. Maruyama, Tokyo Univ.
 Wrapping (10,10) SWNT (Animation)

(0,0)

Ch = (10,10)
y
a1
a2
x 14

Prof. S. Maruyama, Tokyo Univ.

 Wrapping (10,10) SWNT (Animation)

(0,0)

Ch = (10,10)
y
a1
a2
x 15

Prof. S. Maruyama, Tokyo Univ.

 Wrapping (10,5) SWNT (Animation)

(0,0)

Ch = (10,5)

y
a1
a2
x 16

Prof. S. Maruyama, Tokyo Univ.

FIGURE 3: STRUCTURE AND THE CROSS-SECTION VIEW OF SWNT.
TYPES OF CNT
SWCNT
By wrapping a single layer of graphite into a seamless
cylinder.
They have a diameter close to 1nm with a tube length
that can be many millions of time longer.
SWCNT properties are very difeerent from MWCNT.

SWCNT are expensive to produce.

MWCNT
It consists of multiple rolled layers of graphene.rolled in on
themselves to form a tube shape.

The distance between these layers is close to the graphene

layer distance in graphite.

Rolling can be in Two ways

Russian Doll Model

Here sheets of graphite are arranged in concentric
cylinder.
Parchment Model
A single sheet of graphite is rolled in around itself
resembling a scroll of parchment.
PREPARATION
Arc discharge Chemical vapor Laser ablation
method deposition (vaporization)
Connect two graphite Place substrate in oven, Blast graphite with
rods to a power supply, heat to 600 C, and slowly intense laser pulses; use
place them millimeters add a carbon-bearing gas the laser pulses rather
apart, and throw switch. such as methane. As gas than electricity to
At 100 amps, carbon decomposes it frees up generate carbon gas
vaporizes in a hot carbon atoms, which from which the NTs form;
plasma. recombine in the form of try various conditions
NTs until hit on one that
produces prodigious
amounts of SWNTs
Can produce SWNT and Easiest to scale to Primarily SWNTs, with a
MWNTs with few industrial production; long large diameter range that
structural defects length can be controlled by
varying the reaction
temperature
Tubes tend to be short NTs are usually MWNTs By far the most costly,
with random sizes and and often riddled with because requires
directions defects expensive lasers
RM
 Mechanically, CNTs are currently the strongest known
fibers because the carboncarbon bond observed in
graphite is one of the strongest in nature
CNT has a Youngs modulus of 1.28TPascal to 1.8T Pascal
Steel has about 0.21TPascal
CNT Very stiff and hard to bend.
When they bend they do not break only buckle up and can be
straightened back.
They do not break because of
Presence of no defects.
Hexagonal Carbon rings change in structure.
Tensile Strength
It is the measure of amount of stress required to pull a materials apart.
CNT- 45 billion Pascal
Steel- 20 billion Pascal
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
Nanotubes have a high strength to weight ratio. Which
is very useful for lightweight applications.

This value is over twice that of conventional carbon and

100 times that of steel.

Nanotubes are highly resistant to chemical attack .

Surface area of nanotube is the order of 10-20m2/g,

 They have high thermal conductivity ,this increases with
decrease in diameter.

Thermal conductivity of CNT is a fact of 2 more than

diamond.

They are good conductors of heat.

APPLICATION

CNT-FET
Making use of the
conductive nature of
CNT FET have been
developed.
 When a small electric field is applied parallel to the CNT
,electrons are emitted at a very high rate..
One application of this is the development of flat planel
displays.
Samsung in Koreais developing a Flat panel display
using CNT.With brightness of order 0f 1800 candela/m2
at 4v/micrometer.
This property is used by Japanese company to develop
vacuum tube lamps that are long lived and more
efficient.
Some researchers use this method to generate
microwaves.
 CNT can be used to store hydrogen.
It is estimated that tube need to hold 6.5% hydrogen by weight ,At
present only about 4% Hydrogen by weight has succesfully put inside
the tube.

CNT act as catalyst for some chemical reactions.

Nanotubes with ruthenium metal bonded to the outside has shown good
catalytic effect compared to ruthenium with other carbon molecules.

CNTs have the intrinsic characteristics desired in material used as

electrodes in batteries and capacitors, two technologies of rapidly
increasing importance. CNTs have a tremendously high surface area
(~1000 m2/g!!), good electrical conductivity, and very importantly,
their linear geometry makes their surface highly accessible to the
electrolyte.

CNTs also have applications in a variety of fuel cell components

 Fibers spun of pure CNTs have recently been demonstrated
and are undergoing rapid development, along with CNT
composite fibers.

Such super strong fibers will have many applications

including body and vehicle armor, transmission line cables,
woven fabrics and textiles.

CNTs are also being used to make textiles stain resistant.

Advantage of CNTs over other materials are due to their small

size, high strength, high electrical and thermal conductivity,
and high specific area make CNTs as a suitable sensing
material in pressure, flow, thermal, gas, optical, mass,
position,stress, strain, chemical, and biological sensors.