Carbon Nanotubes Fabrication Interest in the production and properties of single walled carbon nanotubes began some ten

years ago and has increased worldwide due to its possible technological applications [1]. Material scientists think that these carbon cylinders can be the building blocks for microscopic transistors and similar electronic devices in the future. There are two important problems to solve regarding this new technology: (1) To grow the nanotubes to useful lengths and (2) To assemble them in the form of transistor-like junctions. One of the most used forms of growing nanotubes today is a technique called chemical- vapor-deposition (CVD). In one of the CVD variants, carbon nanotubes grow in a stream of gases blown across catalysts on silicon wafers [2]. Briefly, a 150 g (mL)-1 solution of ferric nitrate nonanhydrate in 2-propanol is prepared and stirred for 2 minutes. The silicon wafers are dipped in this solution for 10 s, rinsed in hexane, and dried. The process continues with the silicon wafer placed inside a tube furnace. The furnace is slowly heated until it reaches about 900 C while argon gas flows at 600 standard cubic centimeters (sccm) through the tube. At this point, the sample is annealed for 10-to15 minutes under an additiona l flow of 400 sccm of hydrogen. The argon and hydrogen flows are then replaced by methane (99.99%) at a flow rate of 1,000-to 6,000-cm3 min-1 for some 3 to 5 minutes, and finally, the furnace is cooled under argon. This technique yields some single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCN) with diameters in the range from 0.8 nm to 3.0 nm, and length of up to tens of micrometers[3]. There are variations of this technique in the literature[4,5]. The basic setup of the furnace and temperature controller is shown in Figure 1. The sample is located inside the quartz tube in the middle region of the furnace.

Figure 1Basic setup of the furnace and temperature controller

At the beginning of 2003 [6] some researchers at Duke University us ed a simple variation on the CVD nanotube-production method and obtained 2-to-4-mm- long tubes anchored in the catalysts and aligned parallel to one another in the direction of

the blowing gases. After the wafers and their newly formed tubes cooled, the researchers rotated them by 90 degrees and returned them to the oven. A second set of tubes grew perpendicularly to the first set. In this way, a solution was found for the two problems mentioned above. Because of a Collaborative to Incorporate Research and Education (NSF-CIRE) proposal between the UPRH and the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN), we were able to setup a CVD station at our Department of Physics and Electronics, and developed the expertise to grow nanotubes with it. As part of this NSF-CIRE proposal one of the Co-PIs (Guerra) went to UPENN for three consecutive Summers to work in nanomaterials research topics under the supervision of Professor Alan T. Johnson. We plan to introduce the entire process of fabricating and characterizing these carbon nanotubes into the Intermediate Laboratory course as discussed in Section IV. 1. Gorman, J. Science News 2003, 163, 275 2. Hafner, J. H.; Cheung, C-L.; Oosterkamp, T. H.; Lieber, C. M. J. Phys. Chem. B 2001, 105, 743-746 3. Kong, J.; Soh, H. T.; Cassell, A. M.; Quate, C. F.; Dai, H. Nature 1998, 395, 878-881 4. Efficient CVD Growth of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on Surfaces Using Carbon Monoxide Precursor. Zheng, B.; Lu, C.; Gu, G.; Makarovski, A.; Finkelstein, G.; Liu, J.; Nano Lett.; (Communication); 2002 ; 2(8); 895898 5. Lattice-Oriented Growth of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes. Su, M.; Li, Y.; Maynor, B.; Buldum, A.; Lu, J. P.; Liu, J.; J. Phys. Chem. B. ; (Communication); 2000 ; 104(28); 6505-6508 6. Growth of Millimeter-Long and Horizontally Aligned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on Flat Substrates. Huang, S.; Cai, X.; Liu, J.; J. Am. Chem. Soc.; (Communication); 2003 ; 125(19); 5636-5637