Nanocrystalline cobalt oxides for carbon nanotube growth

摘要

Thin Films of nanocrystalline cobalt oxide were formed by sol-gel method. Structure, optical properties and surface properties of these films were investigated by numerous characterization techniques. These films were successfully fabricated on glass substrates below 500℃. . Micropatterns of cobalt oxide thin films were also fabricated on glass and silicon substrates by employing a lift-off method. Crystal size of these nanocrystalline cobalt films could be successfully controllable by varying the amount of cobalt precursors and number of layers. These films were used as the seeding layers for carbon nanotube growth in a CVD process By changing the concentration of monomer precursors in the sol-gel coating solutions, different size nanoclusters hence different size carbon nanotubes could be synthesized in CVD process. This method can be used for controlled growth of carbon nanotubes for many different applications. In this paper, detail of these experimental results will be presented.