LIKE the rest of us, carbon nanotubes appreciate a bit of luxury. They turn out to grow prolifically when given a sparkling bed of diamonds.
Nanotubes are generally produced by chemical vapour deposition. A carbon-based gas such as methane is heated to around 700 °C and passed over a layer of metal nanoparticles – commonly nickel, cobalt or iron. The nanoparticles act as catalysts, helping the high temperature to break the methane gas apart, creating a cloud of carbon atoms that then congregate on the metal to form nanotubes.
But metal nanoparticles tend to merge in the intense heat and cease…
