Is the diameter or chirality distribution of single-walled carbon nanotubes selected in the synthesis process?

Based on recent theoretical photoluminescence intensity calculations, the population densities of sixteen semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes grown by alcohol catalytic chemical vapor deposition were estimated for two different temperatures. The profiles of population density merely as functions of tube-diameter or chiral angle are found to be widely scattered. However, systematic profiles are detectable when separately split into (2n+m), (n+2m) and (n-m) family arrays. Apart from these well-knit family behaviors, the population densities of the group of nanotubes forming another three possible series [viz. constant-n, constant-m and constant-(n+m)] also show evidence of good correlations. Hence, a two-dimensional chiral-zone selective growth principle is hypothesized.