Cary L. Pint1, Sean Pheasant1, Kent Coulter2, Nolan Nicholas3, Howard K. Schmidt4, Matteo Pasquali5, and Robert H. Hauge6. (1) Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory, Rice University, 6100 Main St, MS 100, Houston, TX 77005, (2) Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX 78228, (3) Department of Chemistry, Rice University, 6100 Main Str, Houston, TX 77005, (4) Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory, Rice University, 6100 South Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, (5) Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street MS 362, Houston, TX 77005, (6) Smalley Institute, Rice University, 6100 Main Street MS 362, Houston, TX 77005
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.