Mist Flow Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth of Thin Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes Using Fe18 Clusters as the Catalyst Precursor

Abstract

An investigation about the fabrication of thin single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) using Fe 18 clusters as the catalyst precursor by means of mist flow chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been carried out. The advantage of Fe 18 clusters is the uniform and small particle size. As a result, choosing the acetonitrile (MeCN), the original solvent for preparing Fe 18 clusters, as the carbon source can lead to the mean diameter of as-grown SWCNTs around 0.81 nm and thinner than some published results (zeolite-supported CVD and HiPco). In addition, according to the measured diameter distribution of as-grown SWCNTs, we are aware that thin SWCNTs less than 1.0 nm are dominant within the as-grown products corresponding to photoluminescence (PL) map indicating that mist flow CVD could be another option for the fabrication of thin SWCNTs in a floating CVD system and beneficial for the application of SWCNTs and development of CNT-based semiconducting electronic devices.