Title: The effect of the surface roughness of carbon fibres on CNT growth by floating-catalyst chemical vapour deposition

Authors: Geunsung Lee; Kyoung Ju Kim; Woong-Ryeol Yu; Ji Ho Youk

Addresses: Department of Material Science and Engineering and Research Institute of Advanced Materials, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-842, Korea ' Department of Material Science and Engineering and Research Institute of Advanced Materials, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-842, Korea ' Department of Material Science and Engineering and Research Institute of Advanced Materials, College of Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-842, Korea ' Department of Advanced Fiber Engineering, Division of Nano-Systems, Inha University, Incheon 402-751, Korea

Abstract: The effect of the surface roughness of a substrate, in particular carbon fibre, on the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was investigated using floating-catalyst chemical vapour deposition. Carbon fibres (CFs) with four different surface roughness levels were prepared using thermal treatments under an argon and air environment, after which they were used as a substrate for CNT synthesis. The rough surface was observed to be more beneficial to cultivate uniform and long CNTs. By examining the morphologies and chemical components of both CF and CNT-grafted-CF surfaces using electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method, and Fourier transform spectroscopy, it was revealed that the surface roughness of the substrate plays an important role in maintaining the activation of catalyst nanoparticles for growing CNTs.

Keywords: carbon nanotube growth; CNTs; surface roughness; floating-catalyst CVD; chemical vapour deposition; carbon fibres; CNT growth; carbon nanotubes; nanotechnology; catalyst nanoparticles.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2013.054219

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2013 Vol.10 No.8/9, pp.800 - 810

Published online: 01 Aug 2013 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article