Cylindrical Metal Wire Surface Coating with Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes by an Atmospheric-Pressure Microplasma CVD Technique

Abstract

A simple technique to coat the surface of a cylindrical tungsten wire with multiwalled (MW) carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has been developed. The coating was deposited by CVD using an atmospheric-pressure microplasma generated in a quartz capillary by a few tens of watts of UHF power. The deposition and growth manner of the MWCNTs were controlled by the method of passage of CH4 and vaporized ferrocene gases. When the two gases were supplied simultaneously, the deposited surface of the tungsten wire contained tangles of MWCNTs. However, aligned MWCNTs were formed when vaporized ferrocene was fed first followed by CH4. In this process, the growth rate of MWCNTs was relatively high compared with conventional plasma-enhanced CVD. This is a new method to prepare MWCNTs efficiently with low energy (few tens of watts) and minimum time.