Carbon nanotubes synthesized by simple thermal chemical vapor deposition and their electrical properties

A simple thermal chemical vapor deposition growth technique of multi-walled carbon nanotubes is present. Aligned carbon nanotube arrays on Fe
2
O
3
/ SiO
2
/Si substrates, carbon nanotube film on Pt metal grid substrates, and straight carbon nanotubes on Mo-Fe/silica substrates have been synthesized at lower reaction temperature at atmospheric pressure by pyrolysis of ethyl alcohol as carbon source. The as-synthesized carbon nanotubes were characterized by both scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The electrical property measurements of individual multi-walled carbon nanotube grown on Fe
2
O
3
/ SiO
2
/Si silicon substrate and Pt metal grid substrate were performed by homemade ‘nano-manipulator’. According to Current-Voltage curves obtained in our experiments, we could calculate the current density that the multi-walled carbon nanotubes could carry is about 10
⁷
A/cm
²
, which is much larger than that of normal metals.