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Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) Imaging of Carbon Nanotropes: C60, CNT and Graphene

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Carbon Nanomaterial Electronics: Devices and Applications

Part of the book series: Advances in Sustainability Science and Technology ((ASST))

Abstract

The discovery of fullerenes and other nanosized carbon allotropes has opened a vast new field of possibilities in nanotechnology and has become one of the most promising research areas. Carbon nanomaterials have a wide-scale scientific as well as technological importance because of their distinctly different physical, chemical and electronic properties. ‘Carbon Nanotropes’, the nanoscale carbon allotropes such as Buckminsterfullerenes (C60), Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and Graphene, show a huge potential toward various devices, sensors and catalytic applications and therefore draw a wide-scale industrial attentions. A better understanding of their formation mechanism along with their direct visualization down to nanometer-scale structural analysis is of high technological demand. Recent advancements in nanoscience and nanotechnology make it possible to study the growth/synthesis along with structure and bonding by analyzing the atomic-scale imaging of these carbon nanotropes. In this aspect, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) would be a useful tool with extremely high spatial resolution. This chapter is mainly focused on STM imaging of some of the recent carbon nanotropes such as C60, CNTs and graphene to bring together the atomic-scale structure and their related material properties.

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Acknowledgements

The author (SG) gratefully acknowledges the instrumental support from Prof. Philip Moriarty of University of Nottingham, UK, for some of the STM images of C60 molecules.

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  1. Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, Rajasthan, India

    Subhashis Gangopadhyay &  Sushil

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  1. Subhashis Gangopadhyay
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Correspondence to Subhashis Gangopadhyay .

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  1. Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India

    Arnab Hazra

  2. Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, School of Engineering, Tezpur University, Napaam, Assam, India

    Rupam Goswami

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Gangopadhyay, S., Sushil (2021). Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) Imaging of Carbon Nanotropes: C60, CNT and Graphene. In: Hazra, A., Goswami, R. (eds) Carbon Nanomaterial Electronics: Devices and Applications. Advances in Sustainability Science and Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1052-3_3

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