Micro glow plasma for localized nanostructural modification of carbon nanotube forest

This paper reports the localized selective treatment of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNT forests, for radial size modification of the nanotubes through a micro-scale glow plasma established on the material. An atmospheric-pressure DC glow plasma is shown to be stably sustained on the s...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sarwar, Mirza Saquib us, Xiao, Zhiming, Saleh, Tanveer, Nojeh, Alireza, Takahata, Kenichi
Format: Article
Language:English
English
English
Published: AIP Publishing 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/51819/1/APL%202.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/51819/7/51819_Micro%20glow%20plasma%20for%20localized%20nanostructural_Scopus.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/51819/8/51819_Micro%20glow%20plasma%20for%20localized%20nanostructural_WoS.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/51819/
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/109/8/10.1063/1.4961629
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Summary:This paper reports the localized selective treatment of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNT forests, for radial size modification of the nanotubes through a micro-scale glow plasma established on the material. An atmospheric-pressure DC glow plasma is shown to be stably sustained on the surface of the CNT forest in argon using micromachined tungsten electrodes with diameters down to 100 lm. Experiments reveal thinning or thickening of the nanotubes under the micro glow depending on the process conditions including discharge current and process time. These thinning and thickening effects in the treated nanotubes are measured to be up to �30% and �300% in their diameter, respectively, under the tested conditions. The elemental and Raman analyses suggest that the treated region of the CNT forest is pure carbon and maintains a degree of crystallinity. The local plasma treatment process investigated may allow modification of material characteristics in different domains for targeted regions or patterns, potentially aiding custom design of micro-electro- mechanical systems and other emerging devices enabled by the CNT forest.