A study of carbon nanotube contamination by XANES spectroscopy

Carbon-based nanostructures continue to attract a disproportionate share of research effort because of their wide range of properties. This research includes synthesis techniques and controlling the structure and morphology of nanomaterials, since for many applications tedious manipulations are often required. One of the problems faced in such a characterization is contamination. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been synthesized by hot filament plasma enhanced catalytic chemical vapour deposition (HF PE CCVD) and investigated by x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES). The spectra showed that samples with a large surface curvature are less sensitive to thermal treatment. Among the contaminants, we find potassium, which may have come from the beam line.