The role of nitrogen in carbon nanotube formation

Abstract

To examine the role of nitrogen, Co- and Ni-coated substrates were pretreated with three different gas compositions to compare the pretreated catalyst surfaces; the Fe, Co and Ni foils were subjected to carbon nanotube (CNT) growth experiments with CH 4/H 2 and CH 4/N 2 as source gases; the catalyst pretreatment plus the CNT growth experiments on Co- and Ni-coated Si substrates were carried out using both microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition and electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) under different nitrogen-containing gases. The results show that the role of nitrogen may be summarized as follows: by comparing with hydrogen plasma, the bombardment energy of nitrogen plasma is greater. Therefore, the presence of nitrogen during CNT growth can keep the front catalyst surface clean and active to prolong surface passivation to enhance carbon bulk diffusion. The higher temperature due to higher bombardment energy of nitrogen plasma can promote agglomeration effects during catalyst pretreatment and the initial stage of CNT growth to produce larger size nano-particles. The presence of nitrogen is a favorable condition for formation of the bamboo-like CNTs, but not a necessary condition. Another favorable condition for formation of the bamboo-like CNTs is to deposit CNTs by ECR-CVD.