Building and testing organized architectures of carbon nanotubes

Abstract

This paper will focus on the directed assembly of multiwalled carbon nanotubes on various substrates into highly organized structures that include vertically and horizontally oriented arrays, ordered fibers and porous membranes. The concept of growing such architectures is based on growth selectivity on certain surfaces compared to others. Selective placement of ordered nanotube arrays is achieved on patterned templates prepared by lithography or oxide templates with well-defined pores. The growth of nanotubes is achieved by chemical vapor deposition using hydrocarbon precursors and vapor phase catalyst delivery. The new technique developed in our laboratory allows enormous flexibility in building a large number of complex structures based on nanotube building units. This paper will provide an insight into the creation process of the longest (single walled) nanotube strands. We will also discuss some of our recent efforts in creating nanotube circuits selectively and controllably and on the spatially resolved electronic properties of nanotubes.