Effect of Fe catalyst thickness and C2H2/H2 flow rate ratio on the vertical alignment of carbon nanotubes grown by chemical vapour deposition

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were fabricated by Chemical Vapour Depositon using a C2H2/H2 mixture. They were grown on Si/SiO2 substrate with Fe film as catalyst, deposited using thermal evaporation technique. The aim of this work is to emphasize the role of the Fe catalyst thickness and the C2H2/H2 flow rate ratio to grow vertically aligned CNTs by thermal CVD. In order to investigate these aspects, four Fe metal films with thickness of 2.5, 3.5, 7.5 and 16 nm were deposited on Si/SiO2 substrate and CNTs were grown with different C2H2/H2 flow rate ratios, from 5/95 to 30/70 by thermal CVD at 750 °C. Results showed that CNTs were not vertically aligned with 16 nm catalyst thickness for all flow rate ratios, while CNTs were always vertically aligned for iron thickness less than 3.5 nm and vertically aligned only for a C2H2/H2 flow rate ratio greater than 20/70 for the 7.5 nm catalyst thickness. Morphology and structural information about CNTs and Fe metal clusters were provided by field emission gun-scanning electron microscopy (FEG-SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Our results also indicate that for each flow rate ratio exists a critical thickness of iron catalyst under which vertically aligned CNTs are obtained.