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The Discovery of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes at IBM

small image of bare section of a single-walled carbon nanotube
small image of TEM micrograph of carbon nanotubes

Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) were independently discovered in early 1993 by scientists at IBM Almaden Research Center and at NEC in Japan. The IBM and NEC groups each found that transition metals co-vaporized with carbon catalyze the formation of SWNT with a narrow range of diameters around 1 nm. Cobalt was used at IBM and iron at NEC. The results of the two groups were reported in back-to-back papers in the June 17, 1993 issue of the technical journal Nature. A web version of our paper is available here. Our work grew out of experiments on metallofullerenes -- fullerenes with metal atoms or clusters trapped inside. A brief account of this early work on single-wall nanotubes was presented at the Tsukuba Symposium on Carbon Nanotube in October 2001, and is summarized in the proceedings paper "Carbon and metals: A path to single-wall carbon nanotubes," which was published in Physica B: Physics of Condensed Matter 323 (1-4), 90-96 (2002).

In March 2002, the American Physical Society awarded its James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials jointly to Donald S. Bethune of IBM and Sumio Iijima of NEC for their independent discoveries of single-wall carbon nanotubes. The citation reads:
      For the discovery and development of single-wall carbon nanotubes, which can behave like metals or semiconductors, can conduct electricity better than copper, can transmit heat better than diamond, and rank among the strongest materials known.
In July 2004, the American Carbon Society awarded the American Carbon Society Medal jointly to Dr. Donald Bethune of IBM, Professor Morinobu Endo, Shinshu University, Japan, and Professor Sumio Iijima, Director, Research Center for Advanced Carbon Materials, Meijo University & NEC Special Research Fellow, Japan, for their work on carbon nanotubes. The citation reads:
      For outstanding contributions to the discovery of and early synthesis work on carbon nanotubes

U.S. Patent #5,424,054 for "Carbon Fibers and Method for their Production," was issued to IBM on June 13, 1995. Co-inventors are: Donald S. Bethune, Robert B. Beyers and Ching-Hwa Kiang. Information on licensing can be obtained from:

IBM Intellectual Property & Licensing
North Castle Drive
Armonk, NY 10504 - 1785
fax: 914-765-4420

Bibliography of IBM's early single-wall carbon nanotube work

Carbon and Metals: A Path to Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes (an annotated Powerpoint presentation)

Bibliography of IBM Almaden work on fullerenes


Project Members:
Donald S. Bethuneemail icon
Ching-Hwa Kiangemail icon
Robert Beyers
Jesse R. Salem