Preparation and characterization of catalyst mix Fe-Co/MgO for carbon nanotubes growth

Steplewska, Anna; Jedrzejewski, Roman; Borowiak-Palen, Ewa

doi:10.2478/v10026-008-0028-0

Abstract

Fe-Co/MgO is one of the most common catalyst mix applied to carbon nanotubes (CNTs) growth in chemical vapor deposition process. Therefore, here we present detailed study on the preparation and characterization of Fe-Co/MgO. The precursors of Fe and Co are iron (II) acetate and cobalt acetates, correspondingly. The molar ratio of the catalyst mix is Fe:Co:MgO=1:1:100. Initially, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of the mixture was performed. TGA analysis of it indicated the stepwise mass losses which pointed out the crucial thermal conditions for the changes in the elemental composition, morphology, crystallographic structure and vibrational properties. In current state of the art the lowest growth temperature for singlewalled carbon nanotubes is 550°C in CVD technique and here the characterization of the catalyst mix strongly suggest that this temperature can be decreased what would enhance the compatibility of CNT growth with current complementary metal-oxide-silicon (CMOS) technology for CNTs-based nanoelectronics. The morphology, crystallographic structure, elemental composition of the samples and its spectroscopic properties were performed via high resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Infrared spectroscopy (IR), respectively.

References

Dillon, A.C., Jones, K.M., Bekkedahl, T.A., Kiang, C.H., Bethune, D.S. & Heben, M.J. (1997). Storage of hydrogen in single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nature. 387, 377-379. DOI: 10.1038/386377a0.10.1038/386377a0
Search in Google Scholar
Baughman, R.H., Zakhidov, A.A. & De Heer, W.A. (2002). Carbon Nanotubes - The Route Towards Applications. Science. 297, 787-792. DOI: 10.1126/science.1060928.10.1126/science.1060928
Search in Google Scholar
Iijima, S. & Ichihashi, T. (1993). Single-shell carbon nanotubes of 1-nm diameter. Nature. 63, 603-605. DOI: 10.1038/363603a0.10.1038/363603a0
Search in Google Scholar
Iijima, S. (1991). Helical microtubules of graphitic carbon. Nature. 354, 56-58. DOI: 10.1038/354056a0.10.1038/354056a0
Search in Google Scholar
Treacy, M.M.J., Ebbesen, T.W. & Gibson, J.M. (1996). Exceptionally high Young's modulus observed for individual carbon nanotubes. Nature. 381, 678-680. DOI: 10.1038/381678a0.10.1038/381678a0
Search in Google Scholar
Avouris, P. (2002). Molecular Electronics with Carbon Nanotubes. Acc. Chem. Res. 35, 1026-1034. DOI: 10.1021/ar010152e S0001-4842(01)00152-2.10.1021/ar010152e
Search in Google Scholar
Journet, C., Maser, W.K., Bernier, P., Loiseau, A, Lamy de la Chapelle, M., Lefrant, S., Deniard, P. & Lee R., Fischer, J.E. (1997). Large scale production of single wall carbon nanotubes by the electric arc technique. Nature. 388, 756-758. DOI: 10.1038/41972.10.1038/41972
Search in Google Scholar
Thess, A., Lee, R., Nikolaev, P., Dai, H., Petit, P., Robert, J., Xu, C., Hee Lee, Y., Gon Kim, S., Rinzler, A.G., Colbert, D.T., Scuseria, G.E., Tománek, D., Fischer, J.E. & Smalley, R.E.(1996). Crystalline Ropes of Metallic Carbon Nanotubes. Science. 273, 483-487. DOI: 10.1126/science.273.5274.483.10.1126/science.273.5274.483
Search in Google Scholar
Kong, J., Cassell, A.M. & Dai, H. (1998). Chemical vapor deposition of methane for single-walled carbon nanotubes. Chem. Phys. Lett. 292, 567-574. DOI: 10.1016/S0009-2614(98)00745-3.10.1016/S0009-2614(98)00745-3
Search in Google Scholar
Lee, Ch.J., Park, J. & Yu, J.A. (2002). Catalyst effect on carbon nanotubes synthesized by thermal chemical vapor deposition. Chemical Physics Letters. 360, 250-255. DOI: 10.1016/S0009-2614(02)00831-X.10.1016/S0009-2614(02)00831-X
Search in Google Scholar
Kiang. C.-H. (2000). Carbon rings and cages in the growth of single-walled carbon nanotubes. J. Chem. Phys. 113, 4763-4766. DOI: 10.1063/1.1287850.10.1063/1.1287850
Search in Google Scholar
Delzeit, L., Mc Aninch, I., Cruden, B.A., Hash, D., Chen, B., Han, J. & Meyyappan, M. (2002). Growth of multiwall carbon nanotubes in an inductively coupled plasma reactor. J.Appl.Phys. 91, 6027-6033. DOI: 10.1063/1.1465101.10.1063/1.1465101
Search in Google Scholar
Wilson J.I.B., Scheerbaum, N., Karim, S., Polwart, N., John, P., Fan, Y., Fitzgerald, A. (2002). Low temperature plasma chemical vapour deposition of carbon nanotubes. Diamond Relat.Mater. 11, 918-921. DOI: 10.1016/S0925-9635(01)00725-7.10.1016/S0925-9635(01)00725-7
Search in Google Scholar
Kato, T., Jeong, G.H., Hirata, T., Hatakeyama, R., Tohji, K., Motomiya, K. (2003). Single-walled carbon nanotubes produced by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Chem.Phys.Lett. 381, 422-426. DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2003.10.007.10.1016/j.cplett.2003.10.007
Search in Google Scholar
Li, Y., Mann, D., Rolandi, M., Kim, W., Ural, A., Hung, S., Javey, A., Cao, J., Wang, D., Yenilmez, E., Wang, Q., Gibbons, J.F., Nishi, Y. & Dai, H. (2004). Preferential Growth of Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes by a Plasma Enhanced CVD Method. Nano Lett. 4, 317-321. DOI: 10.1021/n1035097c.
Search in Google Scholar
Bachmatiuk, A., Borowiak-Palen, E., Rümmeli, M.H., Kramberger, C., Hübers, H-.W., Gemming, T., Pichler, T. & Kaleńczuk, R.J. (2007). Facilitating the CVD synthesis of seamless double-walled carbon nanotubes. Nanotechnology. 18, 275610-275614. DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/18/27/275610.10.1088/0957-4484/18/27/275610
Search in Google Scholar
Bachmatiuk, A., Borowiak-Palen, E., Rümmeli, M.H., Gemming, T., Kaleńczuk R.J. (2007). Influence of the substrate loading on the quality and diameter distribution of SWCNT in alcohol-CVD. Phys. Stat. Sol. (b) 244, 3925-3929. DOI: 10.1002/pssb.20077614710.1002/pssb.200776147
Search in Google Scholar

Preparation and characterization of catalyst mix Fe-Co/MgO for carbon nanotubes growth

Abstract

Paradigm

My account