Low temperature growth of carbon nanotubes by thermal chemical vapor deposition using non-isothermal deposited Ni–P–Pd as co-catalyst

A novel low temperature growing process of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on silicon substrate was achieved in this work. The Ni–P catalytic dots were directly deposited on the silicon substrate using an innovative non-isothermal deposition process and then displaced with Pd to form co-catalyst. The substrates and C2H2 gas were heated in the reactor to grow the carbon nanotubes. In this study, the temperature at which CNTs can be successfully synthesized is as low as 400 °C with the Ni–P–Pd co-catalyst, while CNTs grew on Ni–P catalyst only at temperatures higher than 600 °C.