Growth and Characterization of Carbon Nanotubes on Porous Silicon

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been synthesized on porous silicon (PS) substrates by catalytic pyrolysis of acetylene at 823, 873 and 973 K, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Field emission measurements have been used to characterize the structures, compositions and electron emission properties of the CNTs, respectively. The results reveal that the diameters of CNTs increase with the growth temperatures as well as the intensities of D and G peaks in Raman spectra. Besides, the carbon content increases as increasing the temperature, whereas the concentrations of oxygen and silicon decrease. Field emission properties for CNTs grown at various temperatures follow exponential increase with the increase of electric field.