Fabrication of high-strength carbon nanotube bundles using iron oxides co-assisted chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

We report the fabrication of centimeter-long, defect-free, and parallel-aligned single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) using a laboratory-designed two-step catalytic chemical vapor deposition method. Our in situ mass spectral analysis reveals that the initial stainless-derived iron oxide block decomposes methane into acetylene and ethylene, subsequently promoting the growth of high-purity SWCNTs on the second pigment-derived iron oxide fine powders dispersed on the Si/SiO2 substrate. Raman spectral imaging shows the negligible defect-induced D-band in the resulting sample, indicating the highly crystalline structure of SWCNTs. By using a gas-flow-type mechanical test system, an SWCNT bundle containing 20 components of individual SWCNTs exhibits the tensile strength over 50 GPa. Since the catalysts used in this study are widely available on the industrial scale, our iron oxide coassisted method will lead to the scalable production of high-strength SWCNT bundles.