Encapsluation of Co and Pd multi-metal nanowires inside multiwalled carbon nanotubes by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition

We report the synthesis of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) encapsulated with Co/Pd magnetic and nonmagnetic multi-metal nanowires using Co and Pd thin-layers deposited on Si substrate by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition using a bias-enhanced growth method. Detailed structural and compositional investigations of these metal nanowires inside MWCNTs were carried out by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy to elucidate the growth mechanisms. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy revealed that MWCNTs were encapsulated with Co and Pd nanowires, separately, at the tube top and the bottom of Co nanowire, respectively. The face-centered-cubic (fcc) structure of Co nanowires was confirmed by a selected area diffraction pattern. We proposed a fruitful description for the encapsulating mechanisms of both Co and Pd multi-metal nanowires. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Growth and magnetic properties of ferromagnetic Co nanorods filled inside carbon nanotubes towards nanoscale spintronics

We synthesize Co nanorod filled inside multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MPECVD) and utilize off-axis electron holography to observe the remanent states of the filled metal nanorod inside MWCNTs at room. The MWCNTs grew up to 100-110 nm in diameter and 1.5-1.7 μm in length. The typical bright-field transmission electron microscope (TEM) images revealed both Co/Pd multisegment nanorod and Co nanorod filled inside MWCNTs on the same substrate. We have also performed energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) measurements to characterize the composition of metal filled inside MWCNTs. Based on high-resolution TEM measurements, we observed the face-centered-cubic (fcc) Co filled inside MWCNT. The component of magnetic induction was then measured to be 1.2±0.1 T, which is lower than the expected saturation magnetization of fcc Co of 1.7 T. The partial oxidation of the ferromagnetic metal during the process and the magnetization direction may play an important role in the determination of the quality of the remanent states. © 2008 IEEE.