Authors: S Nayeb Sadeghi A Shafiekhani M A Vesaghi
Publish Date: 2011/06/04
Volume: 13, Issue: 10, Pages: 4681-4689
Abstract
Carbon nanotubes CNTs decorated with Cu2O particles were grown on a Ni catalyst layer deposited on a Cu substrate by thermal chemical vapor deposition from liquid petroleum gas Ni catalyst nanoparticles with different sizes were produced in an electroplating system at 45 °C using the corrosive effect of H2SO4 which was added to solution These nanoparticles provide the nucleation sites for CNT growth avoiding the need for a buffer layer The surface morphology of the Ni catalyst films and CNT growth over this catalyst was studied by scanning electron microscopy SEM High temperature surface segregation of the Cu substrate into the Ni catalyst layer and its exposition to O2 at atmospheric environment during the CNTs growth lead to the production of CNTs decorated with about 6 nm Cu2O nanoparticles We used SEM to study the surface characteristics of Ni catalyst films and characteristic of grown CNTs Raman spectroscopy transmission electron microscopy TEM electron diffraction EDX Xray diffraction and Xray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS revealed the formation of CNTs The selected area electron diffraction pattern EDX and XPS studies show that these CNTs were decorated with Cu2O nanoparticles This way of fabrication is the easiest and lowest cost method
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