Diameter-Selective Density Enhancement of Horizontally Aligned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Arrays by Temperature-Mediated Method

High-density single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) arrays with specific diameters are pursued as potential building blocks in future nanoelectronic devices. The direct growth of SWNT arrays on the single-crystal substrate has proved offering densely packing high-quality SWNTs. However, further increase of SWNT density is limited by the deactivation of the catalyst nanoparticles during chemical vapor deposition process. Moreover, an increase of array density without any structure control of SWNTs would make the benefit effect very limited. Here, a temperature-mediated method is proposed to achieve a high-density SWNT array with a specific diameter via continual growth of SWNTs after reactivating poisoned catalysts with high carbon capacity and appropriate size. The density of obtained SWNT array on the quartz substrate is increased by more than three times, with diameter distribution controlled ≈2 nm. This approach paves the way for the integration of SWNTs into nanodevices.