Cutting Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes through

NANO LETTERS

Cutting Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes through Fluorination

2002 Vol. 2, No. 9 1009-1013

Z. Gu, H. Peng, R. H. Hauge, R. E. Smalley, and J. L. Margrave* Department of Chemistry, Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, MS-60, Rice UniVersity, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005 Received July 1, 2002; Revised Manuscript Received July 22, 2002

ABSTRACT The fluorination of purified HiPco single-wall carbon nanotubes to a stoichiometry CFx (x E 0.2) followed by pyrolysis of the partially fluorinated nanotubes up to 1000 °C was found to have “cut” the nanotubes to a range of short lengths (average