Well-aligned carbon nanotube array membrane synthesized in porous alumina template by chemical vapor deposition

A new simple approach was developed for preparing well-aligned and monodispersed carbon nanotuoe (CNT) array membrane within the cylindrical pores of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Acetylene and hydrogen were used in the CVD process with Fe-catalyzer at 700℃ under 250 Pa. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were employed to characterize the resulting highly-oriented uniform hollow tube array which had a diameter of about 250 nm, a tube density of 5.3×108cm2 and a length of about 60 μm. The length and diameter of the tubes depend on the thickness and pore diameter of the template. The growth properties of the CNT array film can be achieved by controlling the structure of the template, the particle size of Fe-catalyzer, the temperature in the reactor, the flow ratio and the deposition time. The highly-oriented and uniform CNT array membrane fabricated by this simple method is very much useful in a variety of application