Letter abstract
Nature Nanotechnology 3, 17 - 21 (2008)
Published online: 9 December 2007 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2007.406
Subject Categories: Carbon nanotubes and fullerenes | Synthesis and processing
Plumbing carbon nanotubes
Chuanhong Jin1, Kazu Suenaga1 & Sumio Iijima1
Abstract
Since their discovery, the possibility of connecting carbon nanotubes together like water pipes has been an intriguing prospect for these hollow nanostructures. The serial joining of carbon nanotubes in a controlled manner offers a promising approach for the bottom-up engineering of nanotube structures—from simply increasing their aspect ratio to making integrated carbon nanotube devices. To date, however, there have been few reports of the joining of two different carbon nanotubes1, 2, 3. Here we demonstrate that a Joule heating process, and associated electro-migration effects, can be used to connect two carbon nanotubes that have the same (or similar) diameters. More generally, with the assistance of a tungsten metal particle, this technique can be used to seamlessly join any two carbon nanotubes—regardless of their diameters—to form new nanotube structures.
- Research Center for Advanced Carbon Materials, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Central 5, Tsukuba, 305-8565, Japan
Correspondence to: Chuanhong Jin1 e-mail: chuanhong-jin@aist.go.jp
Correspondence to: Kazu Suenaga1 e-mail: suenaga-kazu@aist.go.jp
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