Chemical, mechanical, and thermal control of substrate-bound carbon nanotube growth

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are long molecules having exceptional properties, including several times the strength of steel piano wire at one fourth the density, at least five times the thermal conductivity of pure copper, and high electrical conductivity and current-carrying capacity. This thesis presents methods of CNT synthesis by atmospheric-pressure thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD), where effective choice of the catalyst composition and processing conditions enables growth of tangled single-wall CNTs or structures of aligned multi-wall CNTs, on bare silicon, microstructured silicon, and ceramic fibers. Applying mechanical pressure during growth controls the structure of a CNT film while causing significant defects in the CNTs. This mechanochemisty approach is used to "grow-mold" CNTs into 3D-shaped microforms. A new reactor apparatus featuring a resistively-heated suspended platform enables rapid ( 100 °C/s) temperature control and versatile in situ characterization, including laser measurement of CNT film growth kinetics, and imaging of stress-induced film cracking. By thermally pre-treating the reactant mixture before it reaches the substrate platform, aligned CNTs are grown to 3 mm length in just 15 minutes.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Hart, Anastasios John, 1979-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alexander H. Slocum.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38257

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38257