The opening and filling of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is of great importance for many applications, such as electrochemical energy or gas storage systems, biological nanosensors, and nanofludic devices. While filling CNTs can be accomplished by directly sucking liquid or molten materials with capillary force Various methods have been developed to open multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), including chemical treatments with nitric acid or oxidants However, in all these methods the opening only happens at the tips of the MWNTs, and uncontrolled damages to tube walls might occur. There is also no control over the location of the opening on the tube surface. Here we report a new method for opening the side wall of MWNTs by using converged electron beams in a transmission electron microscope (TEM). With this method we can specifically select the positions on nanotubes where we would like to perform the puncture. This is of importance for nanofluidic devices and other applications in which nanotube machining must be done at nanoscale.
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