Influence of Catalyst Thickness on Diameters of Carbon Nanotubes

Owing to unique structure and characteristic of carbon nanotubes, much more are attracted attentions since they were discovered .In recent years, carbon nanotubes have been successfully synthesized by various methods. Especially, highly aligned carbon nanotubes were grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In the work, it is studied that different thickness of catalyst affects the diameters of carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes were grown on silicon substrate coated with different thick NiFe films by bias-enhanced hot filament chemical vapor deposition and their growth was investigated by scanning electron microscopy,Onset of analyzing of deformation of different thick catalyst films during heating the filament. The results indicate that catalyst particles encapsulate the top ends of carbon nanotubes, and that the catalyst thickness greatly affects the diameters of carbon nanotubes, which increas with increment of the thickness of NiFe films.