Growth of carbon nanotubes on diatomite

Abstract

We report the formation of vertical carbon nanotubes utilizing diatomite as a substrate. This new material combines the advantages of carbon nanotubes and diatomite in one material. The SEM investigations showed that the average diameter of the carbon nanotubes was 60 nm and the growth was through the tip growth mechanism. Raman spectroscopy was also used for the carbon nanotubes characterization and showed two intensive peaks around 1350 cm-1 and 1580 cm-1 and several peaks at low frequency range from 100 cm-1 to 500 cm-1 which are assigned to the radial breathing mode (RBM) and used as a characteristic of single wall carbon nanotubes. The photoluminescence measurements at the room temperature showed two very narrow intensive overlapping peaks near the ultraviolet range at energy of about 3 eV. And there are two peaks with lower intensity in the infrared region at 830 nm and at 940 nm (or 1.49 eV, 1.3 eV respectively). © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.