Coalescence of carbon nanotubes while preserving the chiral angles.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39910044.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-56389-6 and PMC identifier 11799306.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Atomically precise coalescence of graphitic nanocarbon molecules is one of the most challenging reactions in sp<sup>2</sup> carbon chemistry. Here, we demonstrate that two carbon nanotubes with the same chiral indices (n, m) are efficiently coalesced into a single (2n, 2 m) nanotube with preserved chiral angles via heat treatment at less than 1000 °C. The (2n, 2 m) nanotubes constitute up to ≈ 20%-40% of the final sample in the most efficient case. Additional optical absorption peaks of the (2n, 2 m) nanotubes emerge, indicating that the reaction occurs over the entire sample. The reaction efficiency strongly depends on the chiral angle, implying that C-C bond cleavage and recombination occurs sequentially. Furthermore, the reaction occurs efficiently even at 600 °C in an atmosphere containing trace amounts of oxygen. These findings offer routes for the structure-selective synthesis of large-diameter nanotubes and modification of the properties of nanotube assemblies via postprocessing.