Investigation of anisotropic reflectance from densified arrays of vertically aligned carbon nanotube forests (VACNTs)

This letter represents a new study on anisotropic reflectance from densified arrays of VACNTs. Basically, the bare VACNTs are commonly known as super dark and highly porous material in nature. Therefore, hypothetically, it is assumed that a large amount of light is trapped inside porous medium of VACNTs while penetration of incident light on its surface. To reduce this porosity, we propose a simple densification process of VACNTs by sinking in water. As a result, the individual CNT inside CNT forests were compacted together after being dried for their capillary action. Figures a and b are indicating the comparison between original and densified VACNTs. Consequently, its optical characterization was carried out by rotating CNTs sample from 0° to 90° by 10° interval at 70° incident angle and P-polarization state of incident light. Figures c and d are showing the comparison of optical anisotropy between bare and densified VACNTs, respectively. (a) Shows original vertically aligned CNTs. (b) Indicates compressed VACNTs after densification. (c and d) Show anisotropic reflectance from bare and densified arrays of VACNTs, respectively.170