Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes by Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition Using Fe1−xMnxO Nanoparticles as Catalysts: How Does the Catalytic Activity of Graphitization Affect the Yields and Morphology?

The choice of a catalyst for carbon nanotube (CNT) growth is critical to controlling the morphology and chirality of the final product. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) can alleviate the requirements of the catalyst, i.e., they must be active for both the decomposition of the source gas and graphitization in the conventional thermal CVD. However, it is still not well understood how the catalytic activity of the graphitization affects the yield and quality of CNTs. In this paper, we systematically investigated the influence of the catalytic activity of graphitization by tuning the composition of Fe1−xMnxO (x = 0–1) nanoparticles as catalysts. As the Mn component increased, the number of CNTs decreased because Mn has no catalytic function of the graphitization. The quality of CNTs also affected by the inclusion of the Mn component. Our study may provide useful information to develop a new catalyst for CNT growth in PECVD.