Single-walled carbon nanotube growth with narrow diameter distribution from Pt catalysts by alcohol gas source method

Single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) growth were carried out on SiO2/Si substrates using Pt catalysts at different temperatures, from 400°C to 700°C, under various ethanol pressures by an alcohol gas source method, a type of cold-wall chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Raman measurements showed that the optimal ethanol pressure decreased as the growth temperature was reduced, and that SWCNTs grew even at 400°C by optimizing the ethanol pressure to 1×10^-5 Pa in a high vacuum system. Compared to the SWCNTs grown from Co catalysts, the diameters of SWCNTs grown from Pt were smaller, irrespective of the growth temperature. In addition, both the SWCNT diameter and the distribution became narrower by reducing the growth temperature and we obtained small-diameter SWCNTs of which the diameters were less than 1 nm using Pt catalysts.