Growth of super long vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays from cyclohexane via floating catalyst method

Vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) arrays were obtained using the floating catalyst method with cyclohexane as a carbon source. Results indicated that various factors, such as growth temperature, ferrocene feed rate, feed rate of the solution (ferrocene dissolved in cyclohexane), and composition of carrier gases, had a great effect on the VACNT array growth. A maximum growth rate of the VACNT array was obtained in a quartz tubular reactor with a diameter of 25mm when the growth temperature was 820℃, ferrocene feed rate 0.24mg/min, feed rate of the solution 0.12mL/min, and the flow rate of the H2/Ar (1∶15) carrier gas 640mL/min. A VACNT array with a height of 5.0mm was obtained with a large aspect ratio (>105) and a high purity (96.7%).