Growth of super long vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays from cyclohexane via floating catalyst method

Vertically aligned carbon nanotube(VACNT)arrays were obtained using the floating catalyst method with cyclohexane as a carbon source.Results indicated that various factors,such as growth temperature,ferrocene feed rate,feed rate of the solution(ferrocene dissolved in cyclohexane),and composition of carrier gases,had a great effect on the VACNT array growth.A maximum growth rate of the VACNT array was obtained in a quartz tubular reactor with a diameter of 25 mm when the growth temperature was 820 ℃,ferrocene feed rate 0.24 mg/min,feed rate of the solution 0.12 mL/min,and the flow rate of the H2/Ar(1∶15)carrier gas 640 mL/min.A VACNT array with a height of 5.0 mm was obtained with a large aspect ratio(105)and a high purity(96.7%).