Light-emitting filaments composed of nanometer-sized carbon hollow capsules

Abstract

Filaments composed of multilayered carbon hollow capsules less than 10nm in diameter have been synthesized from crystalline whiskers of fullerene C60 of submicrometer in diameter by preliminary heating at 1373K and successive impression of current. The structural, electrical and optical properties of the filaments were studied by in situ transmission electron microscopy combined with the functions of scanning probe microscopy. We found that the filaments easily emit visible light at a maximum wavelength of 700-730 nm by the application of a few volts.

Conductance of carbon nanocapsule junctions

“…We have recently developed an experimental method to manipulate two nanometer-sized tips in a transmission electron microscope, 13 and synthesized multiwalled nanometer-sized carbon capsules, a different form of fullerene molecules to the usual C 60 molecules. 14 In this study, we assembled the nanocapsule into a junction with two gold electrodes inside the microscope and performed the electric conductance measurement for the junction.…”

“…We impressed a current into the whisker at room temperature in a vacuum of 1 ϫ 10 −5 Pa, and synthesized multiwalled carbon nanocapsules aggregating on the whisker. 14 We separated the cantilever tip from the whisker on the plate tip and stopped current impression. Subsequently, we picked one of the nanocapsules on the whisker using the cantilever tip and transferred it to the surface of the gold plate tip beside the whisker, as illustrated in Figs.…”

Synthesis of Carbon Nanocapsules and Nanotubes Using Fe-Doped Fullerene Nanowhiskers

“…Chemical vapor deposition, electron irradiation, and thermal decomposition have also been applied to produce CNCs and CNTs [1,3,12,13]. An efficient synthesis method for hollow CNCs using single-crystal fullerene nanowhiskers (NWs) was found by Asaka et al [14][15][16][17][18]. Fullerene NWs can be synthesized by a simple method, that is, the liquid-liquid interfacial precipitation (LLIP) method [19][20][21][22][23].…”

High-resolution transmission electron microscopy of heat-treated C60nanotubes

“…Asaka et al examined the electrical conductivity of a C 60 whisker preheated in vacuum at 1100 °C in a TEM [6]. The preheated C 60 whisker was broken when a high current was applied.…”