The enhanced performance of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) over carbon black as a catalyst support and the outstanding catalytic activities of one-dimensional (1D) Pt nanostructures endow them big potential for applications in fuel cells. However, the research has been mainly focused on the materials, and a combination of both 1D Pt nanostructures and CNTs to fabricate practical high power performance fuel cell electrodes still remains a challenge. In this work, we demonstrate catalyst electrodes from Pt nanorods grown on aligned nitrogen doped CNTs for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) applications. Short Pt nanorods are grown on CNTs deposited directly on 16 cm 2 carbon paper gas diffusion layers (GDLs) via plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) and nitrided using active screen plasma (ASP) treatment, which are directly employed as cathodes for H2/air PEMFCs. The thin open catalyst layer effectively enhances mass transfer performance and, with a less than half of the Pt loading, 1.23 fold power density is achieved as compared with that from commercial Pt/C catalysts. A better durability is also confirmed which can be attributed to the good structure stability of nanorods and the enhancement effects from the N-CNT support.

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Morpho butterfly-inspired structures were used as optical devices (diffraction, diffusion, etc.). Their optical performance were modelled and studied, revealing their potential for real-life bio-sensing applications.

One-dimensional nanocomposite coatings are a new generation of coatings, which have promising applications in versatile fields. In this study, the novel carbon nanotubes (CNTs) reinforced nanocomposite coatings were explored through two-step strategy using both physical vapour deposition (PVD) approach and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) approach. Vertically aligned CNT films were deposited by plasma enhanced CVD at 450 , while density of the VACNT films was modified by using Ag impregnated composite catalyst films. Subsequently, Pt-CNT, Ag-CNT and DLC-CNT nanocomposite coatings were explored to find a feasible way to achieve the well-designed composite structure. Morphologies and microstructures of these nanostructures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, while fourprobe tester was applied to evaluate the electrical conductivity of the nanocomposite coatings. The results indicated that well-composited DLC-CNT nanocomposite coating can be achieved which exhibited better electrical conductivity compare to that of the pristine DLC coating.

In this study, an in-situ low temperature method to cost-effectively grow vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) films has been developed by combining advanced active screen plasma (ASP) technique with plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD). A novel active screen consisting of 316 stainless steel cylinder with double top lids was designed for the in-situ low-cost high-efficient preparation of catalyst films within a PECVD device, and VACNT films were grown from the catalyst films subsequently at low temperatures (≤ 500ºC). The deposited catalyst films and the VACNT films were characterised by SEM, AFM, XRD, Raman and TEM/EDS. The results show that the catalyst films consist of stainless steel nanoparticles with sizes around 50 nm. The growth of the CNTs is related to the PECVD temperature and the density of the CNTs is determined by the status of the catalyst films. The CNTs are multiwalled with nanoparticles at their tips. The mechanisms behind the in-situ low temperature synthesis are discussed based on the plasma physics, growth parameters and physical status of the catalyst films.