Vertically aligned ¹³C single-walled carbon nanotubes synthesized by no-flow alcohol chemical vapor deposition and their root growth mechanism

We present the successful synthesis of aligned ¹³C labeled single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) arrays from alcohol by a modified no-flow chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method that makes efficient growth possible using a small amount of carbon source. The synthesis of high-quality SWNTs by this alternative method was confirmed by resonance Raman spectroscopy, which also showed that the quality of the grown SWNTs is uniform in growth direction. The synthesis of ¹³C labeled SWNTs provides solid evidence for the root growth mechanism in alcohol catalytic CVD, which agrees well with the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations.