Preheated carbon source for carbon nanotube synthesis

Abstract

In this paper, we synthesized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process in a furnace with three different heating regions. Ferritin nanoparticles were used as catalyst for the CNTs synthesis through carbon source which are methane and ethylene mixture. The reason we used a three stage furnace is to preheat the carbon source at higher temperatures and to synthesize CNTs at lower temperatures. This method can be effective to grow SWNTs at lower temperature. Furnace temperature, methane flow, productivity of CNTs and the diameter distributions of CNTs were considered in the process of CNTs synthesis. The lowest synthesis temperature of CNTs grown from ferritin nanoparticles was 700°C. In the future, it is possible to apply this method to grow CNTs on electronic devices at the lower temperature.