Low temperature synthesis of high quality BNNTs via argon supported thermal CVD.

The anti-oxidant nature of Argon gas prevents the formation of water vapors and oxidation of as produced catalysts. These facts have made it possible to synthesize high quality boron nitride nanotubes via Argon supported thermal chemical vapor deposition at a relatively lower temperature of 900 °C. The synthesized sample is the combination of straight, nearly straight and curve like morphologies of boron nitride nanotubes with diameter in the range of 20–80 nm. Internally, each tube has bamboo like structure whereas the external part has lattice fringes with an interlayer spacing of~0.34 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows B 1s and N 1s peaks at 191.4 and 398.7 eV for hexagonal boron nitride nature of the synthesized nanotubes whereas, the recorded Raman spectrum reports a high intensity peak at 1372 (cm −1 ) that corresponds to E 2g mode of vibration in hexagonal boron nitride. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]