Process utilizing seeds for making single-wall carbon nanotubes

US7052668B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• William Marsh Rice University · US

Inventors

• Richard E. Smalley · Houston, US
• Robert H. Hauge · Houston, US
• Peter Willis · Los Angeles, US
• W. Carter Kittrell · Houston, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 29, 2002
• Grant date: May 30, 2006
• Expiry date: Jun 26, 2023

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02P20/54
• WIPO field: Micro-structural and nano-technology
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A gas-phase method for producing high yields of single-wall carbon nanotubes with high purity and homogeneity is disclosed. The method involves using preformed metal catalyst clusters to initiate and grow single-wall carbon nanotubes. In one embodiment, multi-metallic catalyst precursors are used to facilitate the metal catalyst cluster formation. The catalyst clusters are grown to the desired size before mixing with a carbon-containing feedstock at a temperature and pressure sufficient to initiate and form single-wall carbon nanotubes. The method also involves using small fullerenes and preformed sections of single-wall carbon nanotubes, either derivatized or underivatized, as seed molecules for expediting the growth and increasing the yield of single-wall carbon nanotubes. The multi-metallic catalyst precursors and the seed molecules may be introduced into the reactor by means of a supercritical fluid. In addition the seed molecules may be introduced into the reactor via an aerosol or smoke.