In this work, we present a parametric study on the low temperature synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) CVD system using dry bi-layered catalytic thin-films (Fe/Al and Ni/Al, deposited by electron-beam evaporation method) as the
catalysts. With a low substrate temperature of 550 °C and above, SWNTs were successfully synthesized on both catalysts, as revealed from the characteristic peaks of SWNTs in the micro-Raman spectra. By the reduction of plasma power and the shortening of the process times, the lowest synthesis
temperature of SWNTs achieved in our system was approached to 500 °C on Ni/Al catalysts; on the other hands, the lowest temperature for Fe/Al catalysts was 550 °C. Our results suggest that as compared with Fe/Al, Ni/Al is more favorable for plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) synthesis of
SWNTs at low temperatures. This work can be used for further improvements and better understanding on the production processes of SWNTs by PECVD methods.
Polarized Raman imaging of large area aligned semiconducting single‐walled carbon nanotubes
