Structure Controlled Growth of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been regarded as one of the promising candidates for further applications in nanoelectronic devices, including field-effect transistor, transparent film and chemical sensor. However, as device performance urges many challenging requirements on the material synthesis, researchers have been aggressively seeking the potential strategies for preparing samples of SWNTs with well-defined structures (geometry, location, diameter, length, wall number, metallic/semiconducting and chirality) on surfaces. Herein, this review highlights in situ approaches towards selective growth of mono-disperse SWNT samples-including temperature mediated method, catalyst structure engineering, gas ambient tuning, external field assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, surface atomic arrangement induction method, nonmetal catalyzing and sp(2) carbon nano-structure templated growth to get SWNTs samples with controlled diameters, chiralities and electronic properties (metallic or semiconducting) and special morphology. The majority of the growth methods covered here are CVD growth carried on the substrates, for its capacity of growing high-purity,well arranged and aligned samples. Based on the understanding of the growth mechanism of those strategies, we try to propose the general guideline on that how can we develop the optimal solution for controlled growth of SWNTs. It is expected that SWNTs samples with controlled structures will see ubiquitous applications in future nano-electronic devices.