Low temperature deposition of aligned nanotubes

"This Phase I SBIR project focuses on development of a new process for the formation of carbon nanotubes at very low temperatures. Because of their excellent mechanical, chemical, and electrical properties, Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) have almost unlimitedpotential for industrial, military, medical, and scientific applications. Because of their excellent field emission properties, aligned nanotubes are desirable for field emission electron sources used in x-ray sources, vacuum microelectronics, electronmicroscopes and flat panel displays. Unfortunately, processes currently used in the formation of CNTs require temperatures in the range of 700-900,aC. This eliminates the use of some very important low-temperature substrates such as thermoplastics andglass. This project focuses on development of a new DC Plasma Chemical Vapor Deposition (PCVD) process to form CNTs in the temperature range of 100-400 ,aC. In this process, the DC plasma is the only heat source required to activate the hydrogen/methanegas mixture needed for the growth of nanotubes at low temperature. In Phase-I, the main objective is to synthesize CNTS on glass and plastic substrates, and to characterize their field emission properties. In Phase-II, we will further optimize thisprocess and fabricate low temperature CNTs on large-scale substrates suitable for commercial applications. The anticipated applications of the low temperature nanotube technology include e-beam su