Characterization of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Forests Grown on Stainless Steel Surfaces

Abstract

Vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) forests are a particularly interesting class of nanomaterials, because they combine multifunctional properties, such as high energy absorption, compressive strength, recoverability, and super-hydrophobicity with light weight. These characteristics make them suitable for application as coating, protective layers, and antifouling substrates for metallic pipelines and blades. Direct growth of CNT forests on metals offers the possibility of transferring the tunable CNT functionalities directly onto the desired substrates. Here, we focus on characterizing the structure and mechanical properties, as well as wettability and adhesion, of CNT forests grown on different types of stainless steel. We investigate the correlations between composition and morphology of the steel substrates with the micro-structure of the CNTs and reveal how the latter ultimately controls the mechanical and wetting properties of the CNT forest. Additionally, we study the influence of substrate morphology on the adhesion of CNTs to their substrate. We highlight that the same structure-property relationships govern the mechanical performance of CNT forests grown on steels and on Si.

Synthesis Procedure of Highly Densely Packed Carbon Nanotube Forests on TiN

“…On the other hand, if the angle formed between the surface of the substrate and the drop of the liquid containing the catalyst is less than 90° (see Figure 2), the liquid will cover the substrate in a homogeneous manner, increasing the wettability. In this sense, better wettability can inhibit the mobility of the catalyst particles and, thus, hinter particle coalescence [41].…”

Kinetics of Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene Growth on Iron and Steel: Evidencing the Mechanisms of Carbon Formation

“…Roumeli recently published a study of vertically aligned CNT forests grown on stainless steel surfaces, including adhesion tests between the tubes and the steel substrate to test their adhesion performance using 4 types of steels [ 42 ].…”

Vertically aligned carbon nanotube micropillars induce unidirectional chondrocyte orientation

“…The average outer nanotube diameter, as calculate from transmission electron microscopy (TEM), is 8.8±0.4 nm and 6.0±0.2 nm for VA-MWCNT grown as pillars and continuous film, respectively (Figure 1b). The Young's modulus of VA-MWCNT was evaluated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) [22,23] 1c). This difference is evidenced by the wide range of mechanical properties founded in the literature for VA-MWCNT, such as variations in modulus from MPa to GPa levels [19,22].…”