Catalyst free growth of a carbon nanotube–alumina composite structure

Carbon Nanotubes and Related Structures: Production and Formation

“…Usually the catalyst resides at the base of a pore and once subjected to CVD, CNTgrow within a pore. However, more recent studies have shown that carbon nanotubes grow from porous alumina without a catalyst particle [6,59]. This is in agreement with other studies that show many oxides, often used as supports for catalyst or as porous templates for carbon growth, are able to graphitize carbon.…”

“…An example is the template synthesis of carbon nanotubes in porous alumina with no catalysts particle present in the pores. In this instance the porous alumina is subjected to CVD conditions similar to catalytic CVD and graphitic walls are found to form in the pores forming MWNT [6,59]. Similar studies using a variety of oxide nanoparticles found several layers of graphene to form on the surface [55].…”

Carbon nanotubes prepared by anodic aluminum oxide template method

“…One is to carbonize organic polymer (such as furfural alcohol and acrylonitrile) that was filled into the nanochannels of AAO using impregnation method [33,66,67]. The second is to deposit pyrolytic carbon from gaseous hydrocarbons (acetylene, propylene, acetonitrile, etc), which is much easier and widely used now [32,[68][69][70][71][72][73]. Typically, a gaseous carbon source is decomposed within a hot-wall tubular reactor in which the AAO film is preset.…”

Carbon Nanotube Synthesis and Growth Mechanism

“…Similarly, CNT growth on SiC substrates takes place only when some oxygen is present in the chamber (Kusunoki et al, 2000). Porous Al 2 O 3 has already been shown to facilitate CNT growth without any catalyst (Schneider et al, 2008). Catalyst-free CNT growth is also possible in oxy-fuel flames (Merchan-Merchan et al, 2002).…”