Preparation and Field Emission Properties of Carbon Nanotubes Grown on Novel Porous Pyrolyzed Polyaniline Substrate

The pyrolyzed polyaniline (PANI) consisted of amorphous hard carbon full of pores. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) grew on pyrolyzed PANI substrate with the rough surface containing some pores using a low pressure chemistry vapor deposition (LPCVD) method with xylene as a carbon precursor source and Fe/SiO
₂
nanoparticles as catalyst. The pore extrusion and the deposited carbon particles adhesion of CNTs growing inside the pore of pyrolyzed PANI make CNTs mount to the substrate tightly. The field emission properties of production were investigated: the turn-on field is 1.6-2.6V/μm, the threshold field is 5.3-8.8V/μm and the enhancement factor is 4540-7200.