Nonmagnetic growth of SWNTs

SWNTs are potential materials for future nanoelectronics. Since the electronic and optical properties of SWNTs strongly depend on their diameter and chiral angle, the selective synthesis of SWNTs with desired chiralities is one of the major challenges in nanotube science and applications. Here, we demonstrated a selective growth of (6,5) rich SWNTs from the Au catalyst. Electrical characteristics of thin films consisting of SWNTs produced under the different combinations of catalyst types and CVD methods are also investigated, which indicated the SWNTs grown from the nonmagnetic catalyst with PCVD showed the best device performance. The Au synthesized SWNTs displayed ferromagnetic features, which is believed it belongs to the intrinsic SWNTs properties. These nonmagnetic synthesized SWNTs can be useful for the fundamental study of the intrinsic magnetic properties and the chirality dependence of magnetism in the SWNTs. Also these ferromagnetic SWNTs without including toxic nanoparticles such as iron group catalysts can be used for the medical applications.