Effect of Catalyst Particle Size on Densification of Carbon Nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes have excellent electrical and optical properties that captured the attention of applied sciences researchers in the last three decades. Nevertheless, the efficiency of the field emission is limited in a continuous film of a vertically-aligned CNTs. A costly lithography technique and post-chemical treatment have been used to mitigate this issue. In this work, we use a novel cost-effective technique to achieve an in-situ densification of carbon nanotubes via microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and utilize colloidal magnetite nanoparticles of different sizes (5, 10, and 20). The effect of the catalyst particle size on bundle base area was investigated along with the carbon nanotubes quality. It has been found that the use of 5 nm particle catalyst results in the largest bundle base area. The best CNT quality, however, is achieved with a 20 nm catalyst particle.