Catalytic Etching of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Controlled by Oxygen Gas Pressure

We examined the catalytic behavior of platinum nanoparticles supported directly on a multi-walled carbon nanotube with environmental scanning transmission electron microscopy. The catalytic etching behavior of the platinum nanoparticles toward the carbon nanotube was found to depend on the oxygen gas pressure. We supposed that direction of catalytic etching could be involved with amount of adsorbed oxygen onto catalytic nanoparticles. Insitu observations give new insight of morphological control of carbon nanotube etched by catalytic nanoparticles.