Controlling the catalyst during carbon nanotube growth.

We have recently been able to grow single-walled carbon nanotubes by purely thermal chemical vapour deposition (CVD) at temperatures as low as 400 degrees C. This has been achieved by separating the catalyst pre-treatment step from the growth step. In the pre-treatment step, a thin film catalyst is re-arranged into a series of nano-droplets, which are then the active catalysts. Both steps have been studied by in-situ environmental transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. We have also studied the catalyst yield, the weight of nanotubes grown per weight of transition metal catalyst. Using very thin layers of Fe on Al2O3 support in a remote plasma-assisted CVD, we have achieved yields of order 100,000. This may be due to control of catalyst poisoning by ensuring an etching path.