1-dimensional lanthanide halide crystals encapsulated within single-walled carbon nanotubes – a brief review

This brief review describes the crystallisation behaviour of selected lanthanide halides (LnX , with Ln = La, Ce, Gd and X = Cl, I), confined to the nanometre-sized inner cavity of single-walled carbon nanotubes. The resulting LnX @SWNT encapsulation composites were characterised using conventional high-resolution transmission electron microscopy techniques, combined with advanced digital image restoration approaches, enabling the complete structural determination of both the encapsulated crystal fragment and the surrounding nanotube. The studies reveal that some encapsulated 1-dimensional lanthanide halide crystal fragments maintain the overall structure of the respective bulk material, while others exhibit unprecedented crystal structure.