One step fabrication of aligned carbon nanotubes using gas rectifier

We report the one-step fabrication of aligned and high-quality carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using floating-catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD) with controlled fluidic properties assisted by a gas rectifier. The gas rectifier consists of one-dimensional straight channels for regulating the Reynolds number of the reaction gas. Our computational fluid dynamics simulation reveals that the narrow channels of the gas rectifier provide steady and accelerated laminar flow of the reaction gas. In addition, strong shear stress is induced near the side wall of the channels, resulting in the spontaneous formation of macroscopic CNT bundles aligned along the direction of the gas flow. After a wet-process using chlorosulfonic acid, the inter-tube voids inherently observed in as-grown CNT bundles are reduced from 16 to 0.3%. The resulting CNT fiber exhibits a tensile strength of 2.1 +/- 0.1 N tex(-1) with a Young's modulus of 39 +/- 4 N tex(-1) and an elongation of 6.3 +/- 0.6%. FCCVD coupled with the strong shear stress of the reaction gas is an important pre-processing route for the fabrication of high-performance CNT fibers.

Automated summary

This study reports a one-step fabrication method for aligned and high-quality carbon nanotubes (CNTs) using gas rectifier-assisted fluidic control. Computational fluid dynamics simulation reveals that the narrow channels of the gas rectifier provide steady and accelerated flow of the reaction gas, resulting in the spontaneous formation of aligned bundles of CNTs along the gas flow direction. Wet processing further reduces the inter-tube voids in the CNT bundles, leading to high-performance CNT fibers with excellent tensile strength and elongation properties.