Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes and Dispersed Nanodiamond Hybrids: Structure and Hierarchical Defects Evolution by Irradiation

Carbon is a unique element because a simple variation in its local bonding configuration (sp(3) C versus sp(2) C) gives rise to a variety of materials as diverse as diamond, graphite, fullerenes, disordered and nanostructured carbons including nanocrystalline diamond and carbon nanotubes. Carbon-based nanomaterials created interest both in view of the obvious academic importance and technological relevance. In the family of advanced multifunctional nanocarbons, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanodiamond attracted a great deal of attention due to high aspect ratio and outstanding physical properties for a suite of technologies. CNTs can be divided into two main categories: single- (SWCNT) and multi-walled (MWCNT) depending upon the number of rolled up layers. The present paper is concerned with the novel nanocarbon hybrids of nanotubes-nanodiamond ensemble truly forming tetragonal-trigonal composites with and without irradiation keeping a focus on radiation resilience yet to be realized practically and therefore may seem speculative.