Growth of carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) from a 5 gas mixture of H2, CH4, CO, CO2 and H2O

CHED 280

Dennis Callahan Jr., dcallaha@coe.neu.edu1, Jonathan Leong, jleong@coe.neu.edu1, Eko Pandowo, epandowo@coe.neu.edu1, Katherine Ziemer, kziemer@coe.neu.edu1, Demetrios Papageorgiou, demetri@ece.neu.edu2, and Albert Sacco Jr.1. (1) Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, (2) Department of Electrical Engineering, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) over transition metal catalysts has great potential for fabrication of nanotube-based electronic devices because the CVD method is easily controlled, scalable and, combined with standard lithographic techniques, allows for easy manipulation of the size and placement of catalyst particles. Thin films of nickel (Ni) were deposited on a fused quartz plate by thermal evaporation and subsequently reduced in 20 cc/s (STP) of hydrogen at 1173 K. This produced well-formed Ni nanoparticles with diameters ranging from ~6-11 nm, dependent of the amount of evaporated Ni. For carbon deposition, the temperature was reduced to 900 K and the environment switched to a gas mixture of H2, CH4, CO, CO2 and H2O. Carbon nanotubes and carbon filaments were grown and subsequently analyzed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Preliminary results suggest that selectivity of the carbon morphology is dependent on the catalyst particle size distribution.
 

Undergraduate Research Poster Session
2:30 PM-4:30 PM, Monday, August 20, 2007 BCEC -- Exhibit Hall - B2, Poster

Division of Chemical Education

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007