Abstract
Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs or “CNT forest”) were decorated with semiconductor particles (TiO2 and ZnO) by atomic layer deposition (ALD). Both the structure and morphology of the components were systematically studied using scanning (SEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. Characterization results revealed that the decoration was successful in the whole bulk of VACNTs. The effect of a follow-up heat treatment was also investigated and its effect on the structure was proved. It was attested that atomic layer deposition is a suitable technique for the fabrication of semiconductor/vertically aligned carbon nanotubes composites. Regarding their technological importance, we hope that semiconductor/CNT forest nanocomposites find potential application in the near future.
Highlights
The vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT), a sub-branch of the carbon nanotube family, is a relevant nanotechnology research topic nowadays
Thereafter, the clean substrate was heat treated for 1 h at 400 ◦ C in a static oven, and in this way–according to our former results–a thicker native oxide layer formed on the aluminum sheet which promoted the production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) forests during chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) synthesis [3]
For the fabrication of metal oxide/CNT forest composites, both ZnO and TiO2 were deposited onto the surface of carbon nanotubes using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique
Summary
The vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT), a sub-branch of the carbon nanotube family, is a relevant nanotechnology research topic nowadays. The VACNT are often called carbon nanotube forests in the literature and usually synthetized by applying the catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) technique [2]. The carbon nanotube forests are often used in electrical devices due to their electrical conducting properties and can be found in microelectromechanical devices [7] such as gas sensors [8], but can be used in the preparation of nanocomposite systems [9], and have been extensively used for field emission applications, as well [10,11]. In the case of the above-mentioned structure (VACNT), principally, the composite formed only on the outer surface of the CNT forests, while inner carbon nanotubes remained bare without any coverage. A few publications can be found where real composites were formed which are homogeneously composed of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes covered by inorganic layer [12,13,16,17,18]. Composite materials are often used such as electron emitters [19], nanotransistors [20], electrochemiluminescence [21], and sensors [22]
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