INVESTIGATION OF NANOCATALYSTS FOR SYNTHESIS OF Y-SHAPED SINGLE WALLED CARBON NANOTUBES (Y-SWNT)

Formation of Y-shaped nanotubes (Y-SWNT) is believed to revolutionize the next generation of electronics. We have shown that extremely uniform Y-SWNT can spontaneously form when superparamagnetic maghemite ( -Fe2O3) is used as the catalyst without any doping with carbide promoting transition metals. Mossbauer spectroscopy along with other spectrometric techniques was used to characterize the catalyst particles. Transmission Mossbauer spectroscopy results showed that the nanocatalyst comprised mostly of clusters of superparamagnetic maghemite with particle size 30 nm. A strong correlation was observed between the size of the catalyst particles and the formation of Y-branches in the nanotubes.