title: Growth of semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes with a narrow band-gap distribution.
abstract: The growth of high-quality semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes with a narrow band-gap distribution is crucial for the fabrication of high-performance electronic devices. However, the single-wall carbon nanotubes grown from traditional metal catalysts usually have diversified structures and properties. Here we design and prepare an acorn-like, partially carbon-coated cobalt nanoparticle catalyst with a uniform size and structure by the thermal reduction of a [Co(CN)6](3-) precursor adsorbed on a self-assembled block copolymer nanodomain. The inner cobalt nanoparticle functions as active catalytic phase for carbon nanotube growth, whereas the outer carbon layer prevents the aggregation of cobalt nanoparticles and ensures a perpendicular growth mode. The grown single-wall carbon nanotubes have a very narrow diameter distribution centred at 1.7 nm and a high semiconducting content of >95%. These semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes have a very small band-gap difference of ∼0.08 eV and show excellent thin-film transistor performance.
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Advanced Carbon Division, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Advanced Carbon Division, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China.
authors.forename: Peng-Xiang
authors.initials: PX
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Advanced Carbon Division, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China.
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Advanced Carbon Division, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China.
authors.forename: Bing-Wei
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Nano Materials Group, Department of Applied Physics and Center for New Materials, School of Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Advanced Carbon Division, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China.
authors.forename: Mao-Lin
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Advanced Carbon Division, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China.
authors.forename: Dong-Ming
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Advanced Carbon Division, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Cheng
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Advanced Carbon Division, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Tao
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Cong
authors.affiliation: Nano Materials Group, Department of Applied Physics and Center for New Materials, School of Science, Aalto University, PO Box 15100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
authors.forename: Esko I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Kauppinen
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Advanced Carbon Division, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang 110016, China.|Faculty of Science, Chemistry Department, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Hui-Ming
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Cheng