CONTROLLED CVD SYNTHESIS OF SINGLE-WALLED CARBON NANOTUBES FROM ALCOHOL

By using alcohol as carbon source, high-purity single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can be generated at relatively low CVD temperatures from metal catalysts supported with zeolite [1]. Based on these findings, we have proposed alcohol catalytic CVD (ACCVD) technique. In addition to the conventional metal particles supported on zeolite, we have developed a simple dip-coat method to directly disperse nano-particles on flat substrates such as quartz and silicon [2]. As shown in Fig. 1, the vertically aligned SWNTs film with about 10 micron meters is grown on quartz substrates by employing the most efficient activation of catalytic metals [3,4]. In addition to molecular dynamics simulations [5] as shown in Fig. 2, various experimental techniques have been employed to understand the growth mechanism of SWNTs: direct TEM observation of catalysts particles [6]; in-situ Raman and AFM measurements during CVD [7]; in-situ monitoring of laser absorption [4]; combinatory spattering method to