Wet-chemical catalyst deposition for scalable synthesis of vertical aligned carbon nanotubes on metal substrates

A scalable process for carbon nanotube (CNT) growth on metallic substrates has been developed including dip-coating steps for the wet-chemical catalyst and co-catalyst layer deposition and a subsequent chemical vapor deposition step. Organic metal salt/2-propanol solutions were applied as precursors for alumina co-catalyst thin films and the actual Fe (Co, Mo) catalyst layer. Vertical aligned carbon nanotube forests were obtained on catalyst-coated nickel foil in a thermal CVD process at atmospheric pressure and 730 °C using ethene as carbon source. The influence of the catalyst composition on growth rate, density and structure of resulting CNT films was investigated.