Spinnable carbon nanotube forests grown on thin, flexible metallic substrates

Towards the goal of providing a continuous process for the solid-state fabrication of carbon nanotube sheets and yarns from carbon nanotube forests, we report the growth of yarn-spinnable and sheet-drawable carbon nanotube forests on highly flexible stainless steel sheets, instead of the conventionally used silicon wafers. Sheets and yarns were fabricated from the 16 cm maximum demonstrated forest width, from both sides of a stainless steel sheet, and the catalyst layer was shown to be reusable, thereby decreasing the need for catalyst renewal during a proposed continuous or semi-continuous process where the stainless steel sheet serves as a moving belt to enable forest growth at one belt end and carbon nanotube yarn or sheet fabrication at an opposite belt end. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.