Nucleation and growth control of carbon nanotubes in CVD process

The role of metal nanoparticles in the catalytic production of single-walled carbon nanotubes—a review

“…Other, less common, methods for catalyst particle production for CVD include sputtering [12] and liquid chemistry routes such as the application of organic carriers [13][14][15][16]. Sputtering a metal target leads to the formation of a metal film on a support and subsequent heating transforms the film into metal particles.…”

Morphology and chemical state of Co?Mo catalysts for growth ofBsingle-walled carbon nanotubes vertically aligned on quartz substrates

“…In contrast to arc discharge [3] and laser ablation [4] methods, catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) can produce large-scale SWNTs at low cost [5,6]. Bimetallic Co-Mo catalysts, which have been studied for decades due to their high activity in hydrodesulfurization [7,8], attract much attention owing to their high selectivity [9][10][11][12] for the SWNT growth. Especially, Co-Mo catalysts prepared from metal acetate solutions followed by an alcohol CCVD process [13] can directly produce high-purity SWNTs randomly [14] or vertically aligned [15] on quartz glass substrates without supporting materials.…”

A Two-Stage Mechanism of Bimetallic Catalyzed Growth of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

“…18 No experiments have been reported for the combinations Ni+Mo, Fe+Mo, and Co+Mo, which we expect to be the best catalysts. Some CVD experiments did find that Mo impurities enhance the yield of nanotubes combined with Fe or Co. 19,20 But this may not be relevant since the mechanism for CVD production of SWCN (likely involving nucleation and growth on the solid surface) is quite different than the gas phase growth for laser vaporization we are considering. On the other hand, our predicted preferences for different metals are reasonably consistent with CVD experiments, suggesting that there may be similar processes in both growth situations.…”