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US 8,263,180 B2Granted
One-dimensional metal nanostructures
AssigneesGM Global Technology Operations LLC, The University of Western Ontario
InventorsXueliang Sun, Ruying Li, Yuqin Zhou, Mei Cai, Hao Liu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Tin powder is heated in a flowing stream of an inert gas, such as argon, containing a small concentration of carbon-containing gas, at a temperature to produce metal vapor. The tin deposits as liquid on a substrate, and reacts with the carbon-containing gas to form carbon nanotubes in the liquid tin. Upon cooling and solidification, a composite of tin nanowires bearing coatings of carbon nanotubes is formed.
Claims11
A method of making a composite of carbon nanotubes and tin nanowires comprising:
- heating tin powder in a chamber to a temperature for forming tin vapor and condensing tin vapor as a liquid on a substrate while flowing a mixture of an inert gas with a carbon-containing gas into contact with the liquid tin to form carbon nanotubes in the liquid tin;
- and, after a predetermined time
- cooling the chamber to solidify the tin liquid as a composite of tin nanowires and carbon nanotubes, the tin nanowires being at least partially coated with carbon nanotubes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.