CNT Tips Research Articles

Optimization of vertically aligned carbon nanotube beam trajectory with the help of focusing electrode in the microchannel plate

The focusing electrode plays an important role to reduce the electron beam trajectory with low dispersion and high brightness. This article summarizes the importance of the vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube effect with the focusing electrode. First of all, the effect of electron beam trajectory is studied with the different heights, hole sizes, and applied voltage of the focusing electrode by the opera 3D simulation. The field emission electron beam spot is captured in the microchannel plate which helps to reduce the signal noise effect and damage of CNT tips by the joule heating effect. The high-dense bright spot is optimized at the focusing electrode hole size of 2 mm, and the height of 1 mm from the gate mesh electrode at the low bias voltage of − 200 V without the loss of current. The FWHM of the electron beam is calculated 0.9 mm with its opening angle of 0.9° which could be applicable in high-resolution multi-electron beam microscopy and nano-focused X-ray system technology.

Light-Emitting Electrochemical Cells of Single Crystal Hybrid Halide Perovskite with Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotubes Contacts

Based on the reported ion migration under electric field in hybrid lead halide perovskites we have developed a bright, light emitting electrochemical cell with CH3NH3PbBr3 single crystals directly grown on vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) forests as contact electrodes. Under the applied electric field, charged ions in the crystal drift and accumulate in the vicinity of the electrodes, resulting in an in operando formed p-i-n heterojunction. The decreased interface energy barrier and the strong charge injection due to the CNT tip enhanced electric field, result in a bright green light emission up to 1800 cd/m2 at room temperature (average = 60 cd/m2). Beyond the light emission, this original device architecture points to the possibility of implementing vertically aligned CNTs as electrodes in operationally-stable perovskite-based optoelectronic devices.

Atomic-level Sharpening of a Carbon Nanotube Tip for High-resolution Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

Using a multi-walled carbon nanotube (MW-CNT) tip, we have observed the honeycomb lattice of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) via scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). This observation was made after acquiring typical STM images of HOPG, i.e., showing the triangular lattice. We consider this change is due to atomic reconfiguration at the apex of the MW-CNT tip induced by continuous STM scanning. The atomic-level sharpening of CNT tips will be useful to image samples with small lattice constants or to obtain orbital information from samples with an orbital ordering such as manganites.

Stable Wettability Control of Nanoporous Microstructures by iCVD Coating of Carbon Nanotubes.

Scalable manufacturing of structured materials with engineered nanoporosity is critical for applications in energy storage devices (i.e., batteries and supercapacitors) and in the wettability control of surfaces (i.e., superhydrophobic and superomniphobic surfaces). Patterns formed in arrays of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VA-CNTs) have been extensively studied for these applications. However, the as-deposited features are often undesirably altered upon liquid infiltration and evaporation because of capillarity-driven aggregation of low density CNT forests. Here, it is shown that an ultrathin, conformal, and low-surface-energy layer of poly perfluorodecyl acrylate, poly(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyl acrylate) (pPFDA), makes the VA-CNTs robust against surface-tension-driven aggregation and densification. This single vapor-deposition step allows the fidelity of the as-deposited VA-CNT patterns to be retained during wet processing, such as inking, and subsequent drying. It is demonstrated how to establish omniphobicity or liquid infiltration by controlling the surface morphology. Retaining a crust of entangled CNTs and pPFDA aggregates on top of the patterned VA-CNTs produces micropillars with re-entrant features that prevent the infiltration of low-surface-tension liquids and thus gives rise to stable omniphobicity. Plasma treatments before and after polymer deposition remove the crust of entangled CNTs and pPFDA aggregates and attach hydroxyl groups to the CNT tips, enabling liquid infiltration yet preventing densification of the highly porous CNTs. The latter observation demonstrates the protective character of the pPFDA coating with the potential application of these surfaces for direct contact printing of microelectronic features.

Tunneling currents between carbon nanotubes inside the 3-dimensional potential of a dielectric matrix

We have examined the tunneling currents between CNTs dispersed in a dielectric matrix as is normally the case in a tensile stress or toxic gas sensors. Due to the randomness of the immersion process the CNTs are at random angles and configurations between them, thus producing a 3-dimensional potential (3-D). We have produced a method that solves the Laplace equation for this type of problem and uses the WKB formulation to calculate the transmission coefficient between CNTs. We have then shown that the tunneling currents between a pair of CNTs depend critically on their relative angle and configuration. In particular we have shown that the tunneling currents do not occur only along a CNT tip to CNT tip configuration but other more efficient paths exist which give a current higher by two orders of magnitude from what a simple 1D theory would give. On the other hand the tunneling current between non-coplanar CNTs is negligible. We conclude that such phenomena cannot be analyzed by a simple 1-dimensional WKB theory and the percolation threshold necessary for conduction may be lower than the one such a theory would predict.

Remarkably enhanced thermal transport based on a flexible horizontally-aligned carbon nanotube array film.

It has been more than a decade since the thermal conductivity of vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) arrays was reported possible to exceed that of the best thermal greases or phase change materials by an order of magnitude. Despite tremendous prospects as a thermal interface material (TIM), results were discouraging for practical applications. The primary reason is the large thermal contact resistance between the CNT tips and the heat sink. Here we report a simultaneous sevenfold increase in in-plane thermal conductivity and a fourfold reduction in the thermal contact resistance at the flexible CNT-SiO2 coated heat sink interface by coupling the CNTs with orderly physical overlapping along the horizontal direction through an engineering approach (shear pressing). The removal of empty space rapidly increases the density of transport channels, and the replacement of the fine CNT tips with their cylindrical surface insures intimate contact at CNT-SiO2 interface. Our results suggest horizontally aligned CNT arrays exhibit remarkably enhanced in-plane thermal conductivity and reduced out-of-plane thermal conductivity and thermal contact resistance. This novel structure makes CNT film promising for applications in chip-level heat dissipation. Besides TIM, it also provides for a solution to anisotropic heat spreader which is significant for eliminating hot spots.

Electron properties of a microcolumn with a CNT tip

We investigated a possibility of the CNT tips as an electron emitter tip of a miniaturized microcolumn. For the purpose, we analyzed potential distribution, field distribution and electron beam properties of the conventional tip, single-walled nanotube (SWNT) and double-walled nanotube (DWNT). From the result, we made certain that the nanotube emitters have advantages in small beam divergence angle and beam current enhancement. Especially, the SWNT has the largest field strength at the tip apex among the three tips, thus it can emit enough electron current even at a low extract bias voltage. On the other hand, the DWNT has the smallest electron beam divergence angle. It means that the tip has the largest depth of focus among the three investigated tips.

Highly enhanced and temporally stable field emission from MWCNTs grown on aluminum coated silicon substrate

In this work, a detailed field emission study of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) grown on Si and Al coated Si substrates is reported. Morphological and microstructural studies of the films show higher entanglement of CNTs in the case of CNT/Si film as compared to CNT/Al/Si film. Raman studies show that the defect mediated peak (D) is substantially suppressed as compared to graphitic peak (G) resulting in significant reduction in ID/IG value in CNT/Al/Si film. Field emission (FE) current density of CNT/Al/Si film (∼25 mA/cm2) is significantly higher as compared to that of CNT/Si film (∼1.6 mA/cm2). A substantial improvement in temporal stability is also observed in CNT/Al/Si film. This enhancement in field emission current is attributed to strong adhesion between substrate and CNTs, low work function, high local field enhancement factor at the CNT tips and less entanglement of CNTs grown on Al/Si. The temporally stable CNT/Al/Si cold cathode can be a potential candidate to replace conventional electron sources in prototype devices.

Imaging of soft material with carbon nanotube tip using near-field scanning microwave microscopy.

In this manuscript, a near-field scanning microwave microscope (NSMM) of our own design is introduced while using a multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) bundle as the tip (referred to as 'CNT tip'). Clear images of gold-patterned numbers, photoresist stripes and corneal endothelial cells (cell line B4G12) were obtained by mapping the resonant frequency fr and S11 amplitude of a given area while the NSMM is operating in tapping mode. The CNT tip helps to improve image quality and reveals more information about the sample as compared to a traditional metallic tip. The CNT tip is flexible and does not scratch the surface of the sample during the scan, which is useful for imaging soft material in biological science. In the imaging of the B4G12 endothelial cells, the nuclei and cytoplasm can be clearly distinguished from the rest of the cell and its surrounding medium.

Carbon-based nanorings sliding along inner coaxial nanotubes: Möbius topology effects in damping gigahertz oscillations

The axial sliding of carbon-based normal nanorings (NCNs) and one-turn Möbius nanorings (MCNs) along inner coaxial carbon nanotubes with hydrogen-terminated edges is described. Classical molecular dynamics simulations were carried out to investigate their sliding considering C300H100 NCN and MCN nanostructures and single wall armchair carbon nanotubes (SW CNTs) with chiralities (16, 16), (18, 18), and (20, 20). The NCN:CNT system exhibited an oscillatory movement with an initial frequency of about 10 gigahertz decaying slowly with time as the vibrational energy is transferred to radial and torsional modes of the nanoring, while the amplitude remained practically constant except for the (16, 16)-CNT. The MCN:CNT systems, on the other hand, initially oscillated as the NCN:CNT, but a strong damping regime ensued due to the strong interaction of the twisted nanoring with the CNT tips, effectively stopping the oscillation after 400 ps for all MCN:CNT structures investigated.

Nitrogen ion casting on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes: Tip and sidewall chemical modification

Nitrogen inclusion in vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (v-CNTs) was performed in situ and in ultra-high vacuum by nitrogen ion implantation and evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectromicroscopy. The creation of defects induced by the ions drives the formation of different nitrogen species (pyridinic, pyrrolic, and graphitic) at the CNT surface. While nitrogen implantation in CNT sidewalls has results similar to implantation in graphene, where mainly nitrogen sp2 bonding configuration occurs, we observed a different behaviour at the CNT tips, where nitrogen incorporation is also more efficient. A large amount of pyrrolic nitrogen is observed at the CNT tips compared to the amount at the CNT sidewalls for the same ion implantation parameters. This indicates a different reactivity of the CNT tips where the presence of natural defects may be involved in different nitrogen bonding formations between carbon and nitrogen with respect to the CNT sidewalls.

Efficient attachment of carbon nanotubes to conventional and high-frequency AFM probes enhanced by electron beam processes

Carbon nanotubes are considered to be an ideal imaging tip for atomic force microscopy (AFM) applications, and a number of methods for fabricating these types of probe have been developed in recent years. This work reports the attachment of carbon nanotubes to AFM probes using a micromanipulator within a scanning electron microscope. Electron beam induced deposition and etching are used to enhance the quality and attachment of the carbon nanotube tip and improve the fabrication rate of the CNT AFM probes compared to existing techniques. The attachment process is also improved by using a mat of SWCNTs (buckypaper) as a CNT source, which simultaneously improves the ease of fabrication and rate of nanotube probe production. The aim of these improvements is to simplify and improve the attachment process such that these probes can be better and more widely used in applications that benefit from their unique properties. This improved process is then used to attach CNTs to the new generation of low-mass, high-frequency probes, which are designed for rapid AFM imaging. The ability of these probes to operate with CNT tips is demonstrated, and their wear-resistance properties were found to be significantly enhanced compared to unmodified probes. These wear-resistant probes imaging at high scan rates are proposed to be effective tools for increasing throughput in metrological analysis, particularly for imaging high-modulus surfaces with high roughness and high-aspect-ratio features.

Dynamics of Carbon Nanotube Tipped Atomic Force Microscopy in Liquid

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are proper tips for atomic force microscopes (AFMs) as a result of their small tip diameter, high aspect ratio, and high flexibility. For nanoscale imaging of soft biological specimens, a CNT tipped AFM is an ideal tool. In this article we review the application of CNTs as AFM tips and present related research about the forces applied from liquids on nanotubes. Then a dynamic mode CNT tipped AFM in liquid is modeled and simulated. The simulation results are compared with experimental results. For modeling and simulation, a continuous beam model and a forward-time simulation method are used. The simulation results show that when a CNT tip vibrates in liquid, the oscillation amplitude and resonance frequency are changed compared to the state of oscillation in air. The small structure of CNTs reduces the hydrodynamic forces, and the liquid environment reduces the adhesive forces between the CNT tip and the sample. These two factors make CNTs a good choice as an AFM tip.

산소 플라즈마 처리한 탄소나노튜브의 표면상태와 전계방출 특성

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were synthesized using catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Oxygen plasma treatment was applied to modify surface state of the CNTs synthesized for improvement of field emission performance. Surface state of the plasma treated CNTs was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The surface states of the CNTs were changed as a function of plasma treatment time. The oxygen related carbon shift was moved toward higher binding energy with the plasma treatment time. This result implies that the oxygen plasma treatment changes the surface state effectively. While any shift in carbon 1s peak was not detected for the as grown CNTs, oxygen related carbon shift was detected for the plasma treated CNTs. Carbon shift implies that closed CNT tips were opened by the oxygen plasma and reacted with oxygen species. Since the field emission occurs at pentagons or dangling bonds of the CNT tips, the increase of carbon-oxygen bonds plays an important role in field emission behavior by increasing the number of electron emission sites resulting in improvement of the field emission performance.

Field emission properties of capped carbon nanotubes doped by alkali metals: a theoretical investigation

The electronic structures and field emission properties of capped CNT55 systems with or without alkali metal atom adsorption were systematically investigated by density functional theory calculation. The results indicate that the adsorption of alkali metal on the center site of a CNT tip is energetically favorable. In addition, the adsorption energies increase with the introduction of the electric field. The excessive negative charges on CNT tips make electron emittance much easier and result in a decrease in work function. Furthermore, the inducing effect by positively charged alkali metal atoms can be reasonably considered as the dominant reason for the improvement in field emission properties.

Fabrication and Characterization of a 3D-Structured Field Emitter Using Carbon Nanotube

Carbon nanotube has good electrical properties and a high aspect ratio, which enable it to obtain a high current at a low voltage due to its high field. Due to the life and uniformity of their emission tips, carbon nanotube field emitters are hard to commercialize. A field emitter with a three-dimensional (3D) structure was fabricated in this study to overcome such problems. In the 3D-structured field emitter, the field emission tips are located only at the vertical plane, where an enlarged field emission area can be attained. To fabricate the tip of the 3D-structured field emitter, carbon nanotube/silver nanocomposite powders were fabricated via molecular-level mixing and were sprayed at a substrate with good attachment and homogeneous dispersion between the CNT tips and the silver. The field emission properties of the 3D-structured field emitter were then determined and compared with those of a flat field emitter. The field emission area of the 3D-structured field emitter was found to be 4.5 times larger than that of the flat field emitter, with six times higher current density. Moreover, the 3D-structured field emitter had better stability than the flat field emitter. At a high gate field, the emission images of the 3D-structured field emitter showed light spots expanded towards the gate direction.

Improvement of the Field Emission Stability of Carbon Nanotube Paste Emitter by Post-treatments

The field emitters were fabricated by screen-printing of carbon nanotube paste, and their emission stabilities were evaluated. It was found that the emission stability measured in a sealed device is much higher than that measured in a vacuum chamber in spite of similar pressure. This was because oxygen gas was scarcely remained in the sealed device, while the gas is continuously supplied into the vacuum chamber during the stability measurement. It was found that the plasma treatment etched the protruded CNTs, resulting in the uniform height of CNT tips. As a result, the stability was increased remarkably. It was also found that the stability of CNT paste emitter was improved by electrical aging and that the optimum condition for the aging was varied with the size of emitter.

Chemical modification of carbon nanotube for improvement of field emission property

In the present work, chemical modification of carbon nanotube was proposed for improvement of field emission property. Multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were grown vertically on silicon substrate using catalytic chemical vapor deposition. Tips of grown MWCNTs were chemically modified using oxygen plasma, nitric acid, and hydrofluoric acid. Surface state and morphology of the chemically modified CNTs were investigated. CNT tips were opened and defects working as trap sites were generated on the CNT surface by the chemical modification process leading to improvement of field emission property. We suggest that two main factors determining the field enhancement factor are geometric factor and surface state of the CNT tips.

Breaking single-walled carbon nanotube bundles by Joule heating

Electrical breakdown induced by Joule heating was employed to make a well-aligned surface structure from single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) bundles. The surfaces at the breaking ends are tip abundant and composed of SWCNTs of high quality. In addition, the radial breathing mode frequencies of the CNT tips have a downshift than the as-grown SWCNTs, due to the higher thermal stability of wider SWCNTs and the strong intertube interactions. The ends can provide emission currents of about 100μA, and a pixel based on these potential electron emitters was developed for lateral field emission displays.

Distinct Chemical Contrast in Adhesion Force Images of Hydrophobic–Hydrophilic Patterned Surfaces Using Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Probe Tips

In this paper, we describe a fabrication procedure for large-diameter carbon nanotube probe tips (CNT tips) for atomic force microscopy, the tip-end chemistry of the CNT tips, and their advantage drawn from the study of adhesion force imaging in an ambient atmosphere on a patterned hydrophobic and hydrophilic self-assembled monolayer, which has been prepared by a microcontact printing method. Force titration measurements in phosphate buffer solutions reveal that the CNT tip has retained carboxyl groups at its end. In adhesion force imaging, a distinct chemical contrast is obtained for the patterned surfaces as compared to a case using a silicon nitride tip. The origin of the distinct contrast is discussed in terms of the tip-end chemistry featured by carboxyl groups and a possible weakening of capillary forces of water caused at around the tip–sample interface because of the intrinsically hydrophobic nature of CNTs.