The effect of growth temperature and growth time on the synthesis of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes by ethanol chemical vapor deposition method

In this paper vertically aligned Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (VA-MWCNTs) have been successfully synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using ethanol (C2H5OH) as a carbon source and Co as a catalyst on quartz substrate. The effects of growth time and growth temperature on MWCNT growth were studied in detail. At 45 min growth time, by increasing the growth temperature from 550 oC to 650 oC, the length and density of MWCNTs increase. At 750 oC, MWCNTs become spaghetti-like. The optimum growth conditions were found to be at growth temperature of 650 oC. At 650 oC, by increasing the growth time from 30 min to 75 min, the length of carbon nanotubes increases (from 2μm to 12μm approximately). The morphology and structure of the grown MWCNTs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy techniques.