Single-Walled BN Nanostructures
Abstract
We describe in situ synthesis and characterization of single-walled BN nanotubes terminated by fullerenelike structures using electron-cyclotron resonance nitrogen and electron beam boron sources onto polycrystalline tungsten substrates. Detailed comparisons of experimental high-resolution electron microscopy images and simulations based upon molecular models show a dominance of kinks and bends involving fourfold and eightfold ring structures as against fivefold or sevenfold which have been found with carbon. Analysis of the structures as a function of film thickness indicates that they are growing by addition of atoms to the exposed ends of single sheets, not at the substrate-nanostructure interface.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- March 2001
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.2385
- Bibcode:
- 2001PhRvL..86.2385B