Lithography-free synthesis of periodic, vertically-aligned, multi-walled carbon nanotube arrays

Ruiting Chen; Yafei Xue; Xinyue Xu; Hui Yang; Tengfei Qiu; Lingling Shui; Xin Wang; Guofu Zhou; Michael Giersig; Sacha Pidot; James A Hutchison; Eser Metin Akinoglu

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ac345a

Lithography-free synthesis of periodic, vertically-aligned, multi-walled carbon nanotube arrays

Nanotechnology. 2021 Nov 18;33(6). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac345a.

Authors

Ruiting Chen^{1

2}, Yafei Xue^{1

3}, Xinyue Xu⁴, Hui Yang¹, Tengfei Qiu⁵, Lingling Shui³, Xin Wang^{1

2}, Guofu Zhou^{1

2}, Michael Giersig^{1

6}, Sacha Pidot⁷, James A Hutchison⁴, Eser Metin Akinoglu^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ International Academy of Optoelectronics at Zhaoqing, South China Normal University, Zhaoqing, 526238 Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Information Materials and Technology & Institute of Electronic paper Displays, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, People's Republic of China.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Functional Materials and Devices, School of Information and Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006 Guangdong, People's Republic of China.
⁴ ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science, School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
⁵ Nanomaterials Centre, School of Chemical Engineering and Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia.
⁶ Institute of Fundamental Technological Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland.
⁷ Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.

PMID: 34710859
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac345a

Abstract

Until now, the growth of periodic vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube (VA-MWCNT) arrays was dependent on at least one lithography step during fabrication. Here, we demonstrate a lithography-free fabrication method to grow hexagonal arrays of self-standing VA-MWCNTs with tunable pitch and MWCNT size. The MWCNTs are synthesized by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) from Ni catalyst particles. Template guided dewetting of a thin Ni film on a hexagonally close-packed silica particle monolayer provides periodically distributed Ni catalyst particles as seeds for the growth of the periodic MWCNT arrays. The diameter of the silica particles directly controls the pitch of the periodic VA-MWCNT arrays from 600 nm to as small as 160 nm. The diameter and length of the individual MWCNTs can also be readily adjusted and are a function of the Ni particle size and PECVD time. This unique method of lithography-free growth of periodic VA-MWCNT arrays can be utilized for the fabrication of large-scale biomimetic materials.

Keywords: lithography free; nanofabrication; periodic; self-standing; template guided; vertically-aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes.