A novel method is presented which allows the characterization of diameter selective phenomena in SWCNTs. It is based on the transformation of fullerene peapod materials into double-wall carbon nanotubes and studying the diameter distribution of the latter. The method is demonstrated for the diameter selective healing of nanotube defects and yield from C70 peapod samples. Openings on small diameter nanotubes are closed first. The yield of very small diameter inner nanotubes from C70 peapods is demonstrated. This challenges the theoretical models of inner nanotube formation. An anomalous absence of mid-diameter inner tubes is observed and explained by the suppressed amount of C70 peapods due to the competition of the two almost equally stable standing and lying C70 peapod configurations.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0403179,
title = {Diameter selective characterization of single-wall carbon nanotubes},
author = {F. Simon and A. Kukovecz and C. Kramberger and R. Pfeiffer and F. Hasi and H. Kuzmany and H. Kataura},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0403179},
year = {2009}
}