Single-walled carbon nanotubes grown from yttrium carbide particles

The discovery of clusters of single-walled carbon nanotubes from arc-discharge experiments with yttrium carbide as catalyst is discussed. The clusters are arranged around nuclei of yttrium carbides in a radiolarian pattern and are present in large quantities in the primary soot. After the arc-discharge experiment, the black carbon soot was retrieved from the inner surface of the reaction chamber. The primary soot was dispersed ultrasonically in acetone and placed on holey carbon substrate for transmission electron microscopy. The morphology of the soot reveals that the primary soot contains substantial quantities of single crystalline yttrium carbide, and that a novel form of single-walled carbon nanotubes extends radially from these particles.