Effects of interfacial layers on thermal chemical vapour deposition of carbon nanotubes using iron catalyst

Growing vertically aligned carbon nanotubes on a smooth substrate surface requires the formation of high-density catalyst nanoparticles. This, in turn, requires the minimum diffusion of catalyst into the substrate at the growth temperature for carbon nanotubes. In this work, interfacial layers have been optimized and examined for growing vertically aligned carbon nanotubes on various smooth and nonporous substrates. With an optimized interfacial multilayer, carbon nanotubes with excellent adhesion to the substrate have also been achieved. This process can be applied to grow carbon nanotubes on almost any substrate that is compatible with the thermal CVD environments.