One second growth of carbon nanotube arrays on a glass substrate by pulsed-current heating

We report the very rapid growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) at high temperatures that can be tolerated by glass substrates. Glass substrates with metal microelectrodes and sputtered catalysts are heated by a pulsed current in a chemical vapour deposition gas environment for 0.5–1 s to synthesize CNTs of several micrometres in height without damaging the glass substrate. CNTs with structures from single-walled to multi-walled and morphologies from entangled networks to vertically aligned forests are grown simply by changing the nominal thickness of the catalyst, and such CNTs grown selectively on the microelectrodes worked as field emitters for cathodoluminescence. Rapid, easy growth of patterned CNT arrays on glass substrates without using furnaces/heaters or vacuum pumps will be useful for various applications of CNTs.