title: Fingerprinting seamless single-walled carbon nanotube junctions via the migration of encapsulated N2molecules from bottom to top: are arrays of VA-SWNTs continuous?
abstract: Structure control such as diameter changes along single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can be achieved in arrays of vertically aligned (VA-) SWNTs by switching the feedstock during growth. The local nature of the macroscopic transition from one diameter to another is then questioned as one can either envisage seamless transitions or discontinuous individual SWNTs. Here, we demonstrate that encapsulated molecules can serve as markers to doubtlessly identify seamless interconnections in macroscopic samples. A migration of nitrogen molecules inside the continuous SWNTs is observed using bulk scale measurements on double-layered SWNT arrays synthesized from different carbon/nitrogen feedstocks. The existence of N2molecules at the top of the SWNT arrays proves that there are continuous SWNTs throughout the double layered arrays with different diameters.
authors.affiliation: Program in Applied Physics, Faculty of Science, Maejo University, Chiang Mai, Thailand. theerapol@mju.ac.th.
authors.forename: Theerapol
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6785-2724
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Thurakitseree
authors.affiliation: Research Group Physics of Nanostructured Materials, Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kramberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
authors.forename: Pisith
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singjai
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. maruyama@photon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maruyama