Manual spray coating: A cheap and effective method to build catalyst layers for carbon nanotube forest growth

Abstract The main goal of the current work is to investigate the usefulness of manual spray coating method for building Fe-Co layers on titanium substrate, then to grow vertically aligned carbon nanotubes via catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) technique. The effects of various parameters during both layer formation and CCVD synthesis were investigated to check the tunability of the catalyst layer. The quality of as-prepared samples was examined by scanning and transmission electron microscopies, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The following factors significantly influenced the catalyst layer together with the formation of carbon nanotube forest: (1) application of various synthesis parameters during layer construction, (2) pretreatment of the Ti plate, (3) concentration and composition of catalyst ink. By investigating the effects of various synthesis conditions it was concluded, that the system is not overly sensitive to the CCVD parameters such as reaction time and the volume of water vapor in gas feed.