TY - JOUR A1 - Joshi, Ravi A1 - Waldschmidt, Benjamin A1 - Engstler, Jörg A1 - Schäfer, Rolf A1 - Schneider, Jörg J. T1 - Generation and agglomeration behaviour of size-selected sub-nm iron clusters as catalysts for the growth of carbon nanotubes JF - Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology PY - 2011/// VL - 2 SP - 734 EP - 739 SN - 2190-4286 DO - 10.3762/bjnano.2.80 PB - Beilstein-Institut JA - Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. UR - https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.2.80 KW - carbon nanotubes KW - CNT growth KW - metal clusters KW - size selected clusters N2 - Mass-selected, ligand-free FeN clusters with N = 10–30 atoms (cluster diameter: 0.6–0.9 nm) were implanted into [Al@SiOx] surfaces at a low surface coverage corresponding to a few thousandths up to a few hundredths of a monolayer in order to avoid initial cluster agglomeration. These studies are aimed towards gaining an insight into the lower limit of the size regime of carbon nanotube (CNT) growth by employing size-selected sub-nm iron clusters as catalyst or precatalyst precursors for CNT growth. Agglomeration of sub-nm iron clusters to iron nanoparticles with a median size range between three and six nanometres and the CNT formation hence can be observed at CVD growth temperatures of 750 °C. Below 600 °C, no CNT growth is observed. ER -