(15f) Growth of Microarrays of Aligned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes from Catalyst Coated Alumina Nanostructures

A hot filament chemical vapor deposition technique is utilized to synthesize uniform arrays of aligned, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) from catalyst particles on nanostructured substrates. During growth, the nanostructured substrates are held on a stainless steel mesh, which improves the penetration of growth gases and production of SWNT microarrays. Scanning electron microscopy images indicate individual SWNT microarray lengths ranging between 50 and 400 μm, with widths ranging between 400 nm and 20 μm. Fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy indicates the presence of small diameter SWNTs with comparable diameters to those grown in vertically aligned SWNTs on a flat substrate. This work presents a new technique for production of aligned SWNTs with a high mass ratio of SWNTs to substrate and catalyst materials.