Filling Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes with Metal Chloride and Metal Nanowires and Imaging with Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy

Nanowires of magnetic metals (Ho, Gd) have been synthesized inside the hollow interior of single wall carbon nanotubes by the sealed-tube reaction. Amongst the dand f-series metal chlorides investigated in this study, HoCl3 and GdCl3 fill the SWNTs to a significantly higher extent than FeCl2 and CoCl2. HoCl3 and GdCl3 nanowires have been transformed into the respective metal nanowires via the reduction of the chloride nanowires. The nanowires have been imaged using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy carried out in conjunction with STEM confirmed the presence of metal chloride and metal nanowires. Comments Copyright Materials Research Society. Reprinted from MRS Proceedings Volume 706. 2001 Fall Meeting Symposium Z Making Functional Materials with Nanotubes Publisher URL: http://www.mrs.org/members/proceedings/fall2001/z/Z6_23.pdf This conference paper is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/mse_papers/19 Filling Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes with Metal Chloride and Metal Nanowires and Imaging with Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy Satishkumar B. Chikkannanavar, Andreas Taubert and David E. Luzzi Laboratory for Research on Structure of Matter, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6272, USA