Growth of carbon nanotubes on anodized titanium oxide templates by catalytic chemical vapor deposition technique

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grown on nano-porous templates are finding wide applications in various fields. Anodized nano-porous alumina is a commonly used template for growing CNTs. The present work is designed to synthesize anodized nano-porous titanium oxide as templates for growing CNTs. Titanium is anodized in phosphoric acid and hydrofluoric acid media to produce ordered, uniform nano-porous (nanotube-like) oxide layer. The catalyst is deposited at the bottom of these nanotubes by pulsed electrodeposition (PED) technique. CNTs are grown by chemical vapor deposition of acetylene. The CNTs grown are about 10 microns in length and 75-100 nm in diameters. These multi-walled CNTs have graphitized walls and are extremely pure. Well organized and clean CNTs can be grown on nano-porous titania template in a shorter time as compared to CNTs grown on nano-porous alumina.