Carbon nanotubes synthesized by simple thermal chemical vapor deposition and their electrical properties

A simple thermal chemical vapor deposition growth technique of multi-walled carbon nanotubes is present. Aligned carbon nanotube arrays on Fe₂O₃/ SiO₂/Si substrates, carbon nanotube film on Pt metal grid substrates, and straight carbon nanotubes on Mo-Fe/silica substrates have been synthesized at lower reaction temperature at atmospheric pressure by pyrolysis of ethyl alcohol as carbon source. The as-synthesized carbon nanotubes were characterized by both scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The electrical property measurements of individual multi-walled carbon nanotube grown on Fe₂O₃/ SiO₂/Si silicon substrate and Pt metal grid substrate were performed by homemade dasianano-manipulatorpsila. According to Current-Voltage curves obtained in our experiments, we could calculate the current density that the multi-walled carbon nanotubes could carry is about 10⁷A/cm², which is much larger than that of normal metals.