An Investigation of the Plasma Composition in Plasma-enhanced Hot Filament Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition of Carbon Nanotubes

A mixture of acetylene, hydrogen and ammonia (C₂H₂/H₂/NH₃) is used to produce carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by a plasma-enhanced catalytic chemical vapor deposition process either without (PE CCVD) or with hot filaments-assistance (PE HF CCVD). A mathematical model based on Chemkin^™ computer package is used for analyzing specific conditions of nanotube synthesis. Simulations are compared with optical emission spectroscopy (OES) measurements. Morphological and structural investigations on the grown carbon nanostructures are also performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was shown that the significant change in the density and the morphology of the CNTs grown in the presence of NH₃ could be mainly explained by the gas phase formation of CN and HCN. Both species display a high etching activity, whereas the species C, CH, CH₂, CH₂(S), C₂ and C₂H are expected to be the most probable carbon nanotube precursors.