Do We Really Know Why Carbon Nanotubes Grow? (Small 30/2026)

Carbon Nanotubes The CNT growth mechanism is still debated. In the Research Article (e14718), Simone Meloni and co-workers propose a heterogeneous (2D) classical nucleation framework comparing pathways for graphenic patches, caps, and full CNTs. Despite its simplicity, it rationalizes key trends, including the correlation between catalyst particle size and CNT diameter. The results reveal that the bottleneck is the cap-to-tube formation step, rather than the hypothesized graphene patch–to–cap lift-off. Image credit to Veronica Vitali from University of Ferrara.