Local Temperature during the Growth of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

Lack of information on the local environmental conditions during the growth of carbon nanotubes has hindered efforts to understand the formation of these unique nanoscale structures. However, certain thermal fluctuations during nanotube growth are locked into the final structure. The thermal dispersion in the diameters of tube end caps reveals that multiwalled nanotubes grow and taper at temperatures much lower than the commonly quoted plasma temperatures for the arc discharge.