The growth of carbon nanotube stacks in the kinetics-controlled regime

A CNT stack formation technique is used for the pseudo in-situ monitoring of CNT growth in the kinetics-controlled regime. CNT stacks are fabricated by water-assisted selective etching and the cyclic introduction of ethylene into the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor. By varying the growth temperature and the ethylene flow rate within growth cycles, the reaction was shown to be first order with an activation energy of 201.2 kJ/mol. This technique can be implemented to monitor the initial stage of CNT growth by deceasing the ethylene flow time in growth cycles. Within one minute, the CNT growth reaches steady state. The formation of CNT stacks could be tailored to investigate the effects of growth parameters, such as pressure, temperature, and carbon source flow rate, on the CNT growth.