The role of the sp2:sp3 substrate content in carbon supported nanotube growth
2014
Cartwright, Richard J. | Esconjauregui, Santiago | Weatherup, Robert S. | Hardeman, David | Guo, Yuzheng | Wright, Eleanor | Oakes, Daniel | Hofmann, Stephan | Robertson, John
We report the growth of vertically-aligned nanotube forests, of up to 0.2mm in height, on an 85:15 sp²:sp³ carbon support with Fe catalyst. This is achieved by purely-thermal chemical vapour deposition with the catalyst pretreated in inert environments. Pretreating the catalyst in a reducing atmosphere causes catalyst diffusion into the support and the growth of defective tubes. Other sp²:sp³ compositions, including graphite, tetrahedral amorphous carbon, and pure diamond, also lead to the growth of defective carbon morphologies. These results pave the way towards controlled growth of forests on carbon fibres. It could give rise to applications in enhanced fuel cell electrodes and better hierarchical carbon fibre-nanotube composites.
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