What is the chirality of singlewall nanotubes produced by arc-discharge? An electron diffraction study

Abstract

We present an electron diffraction study of bundles of singlewall nanotubes (SWNTs). We have analysed our experimental data by comparing them semi-quantitatively with simulated patterns obtained in the framework of the first Born approximation diffraction theory. Even if our results are rather similar to those obtained recently by other groups, better recording conditions and further theoretical analysis lead to somewhat different conclusions. We claim that bundles of SWNTs are composed of nanotubes with large number of different chiralities.