Heterophase BN:C single-wall nanotubes are prospective as a material with a predicted possibility to vary the bandgap via changing a relative content of BN and C fractions in the nanotube walls. The challenge is both to find the ways of synthesis of such nanotubes and, in case of success, to confirm BN embedding. In this work field emission studies have been performed for revealing the difference between arc-produced pure carbon nanotubes and nanotubes grown from BN:C mixtures. The relative BN content in the mixtures was varied from 0% up to 50% (by mass). The materials have been characterized by a high resolution transmission electron microscopy, Raman scattering and UV-VIS-NIR optical adsorption techniques. The single-wall nanotubes have been revealed in all samples synthesized, but their composition remained questionable. The field emission properties of the samples have been examined in a vacuum diode configuration. It has been found that the threshold fields and slops of the Fowler-Nordheim plot, evaluated from the measured current-voltage dependences, increased with an enrichment of the starting mixtures with h-BN. This increase could be attributed to the work function rise due to h-BN embedding into the carbon nanotube walls. This result opens a way to use the field-emission characterization for an indirect confirmation of the heterophase BN:C nanotube formation. (C) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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