Interfaces between the ends of single- or double-wall carbon nanotubes and metal crystals (Fe, Co, Pd, Pt) were established by electron irradiation with nanometre precision at metal/nanotube contact areas. Calculations of the bonding energies at the metal-nanotube interfaces confirmed that the formation of these covalent junctions was energetically favorable in the presence of a certain concentration of structural defects in the nanotubes. The process could be endothermic or exothermic in comparison with the unconnected configuration but, in either case, atomic defects in carbon nanotubes were a necessary condition for joining them to metals.

Defect-Induced Junctions Between Single- or Double-Wall Carbon Nanotubes and Metal Crystals. J.A.Rodríguez-Manzo, A.Tolvanen, A.V.Krasheninnikov, K.Nordlund, A.Demortière, F.Banhart: Nanoscale, 2010, 2[6], 901-5