Growth kinetics of low temperature single-wall and few walled carbon nanotubes grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Single-wall, double walled or few walled nanotubes (FWNT) are grown by electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (ECR-PECVD) at temperature as low as 600 °C. Most of these structures are isolated and self-oriented perpendicular to the substrate. The growth mechanism observed for single-wall and few walled (less than seven walls) nanotubes is the “base-growth” mode. Their grow kinetics is investigated regarding two parameters namely the growth time and the synthesis temperature. It is shown that nucleation and growth rate is correlated with the number of walls into FWNT. It also provides an evidence of a critical temperature for FWNT synthesis.