9963
2008, 112, 9963–9965 Published on Web 06/14/2008
Manipulation of Ultralong Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes at Macroscale Liying Jiao, Xiaojun Xian, and Zhongfan Liu* Centre for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking UniVersity, Beijing 100871, People’s Republic of China ReceiVed: March 29, 2008; ReVised Manuscript ReceiVed: May 07, 2008
A parallel, controllable yet simple approach was developed to manipulate single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and create complex architectures of SWNTs. This approach was based on the utilization of flexible poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) film as a mediator for indirectly manipulating the SWNTs. With this PMMA-mediated manipulation approach, SWNTs were bended at controlled bending angles without degrading their pristine properties. Meanwhile, crossbar arrays with controlled crossing angle were created. Moreover, complex two-dimensional (2D) architectures, such as steplike and zigzag structures of SWNTs were obtained without complicated lithographic processes. Our manipulation technique paves the way to fabricate novel 2D configuration of SWNTs, induce controllable strain in SWNTs and then build new devices based on them. The potential applications of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in electronic devices have drawn much attention on controlling their two-dimensional (2D) configuration on surface. Controlled chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth was utilized to prepare horizontally aligned arrays with the assistance of electric field,1,2 gas flow,3,4 and special substrates.5,6 These well-aligned SWNTs are ideal building blocks for fabricating high-performance electronic devices.7 Complex configuration of SWNTs with strain are also desirable for exploring their mechanical properties,8,9 tuning their band structure,10,11 and building electronic devices based on them.12,13 Complex architectures of SWNTs can be fabricated via postgrowth approaches, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) manipulation8–16 and assembly methods.17–19 However, these approaches have some limitations. For example, AFM manipulation is of low efficiency, complicated lithographic techniques are involved to shape SWNTs with assembly technique,18 and they can only shape relatively short SWNTs (typically
