Synthesis of tungsten oxide (WO3) nanorods using carbon nanotubes as templates by hot filament chemical vapor deposition

Synthesis of tungsten oxide (WO3) nanorods using CNTs as templates under typical diamond growing conditions in a hot-filament chemical vapor deposition system is described. Tungsten oxide nanorods were grown on two types of CNT substrates, a Si [100] wafer with dispersed multiwalled CNT and a fresh-grown multiwalled CNT film. The templated growth resulted in an order of magnitude increase in surface area covered by the tungsten oxide compared to a planar Si [100] surface, which when combined with the flexibility of growing CNTs in various forms like pillars and sheets [K. Hata, D. N. Futaba, K. Mizuno, T. Namai, M. Yumura, S. Iijima, Science 306 (2004) 1362–1364.], can be effectively utilized in field emission, gas sensing and catalytic applications.