Twenty years after the discovery of SWNTs, scientists from Aalto University in Finland, A.M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute RAS in Russia and the Center for Electron Nanoscopy of Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have managed to control chirality in carbon nanotubes during their chemical vapor deposition synthesis.

 

Carbon nanotube structure is defined by a pair of integers known as chiral indices (n,m), in other words, chirality.

"Chirality defines the optical and electronic properties of carbon nanotubes, so controlling it is a key to exploiting their practical applications," says Professor Esko I. Kauppinen, the leader of the Nanomaterials Group in Aalto University School of Science.