Study of field distribution characteristics in CVD reactors and enhanced growth of SWNCT

The low efficiency of growing single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) poses a barrier to their application in high-performance electronic devices. However, it is difficult to control the uniform growth of SWCNT in a floating catalytic reactor due to the complex parameter control. Therefore, it is essential to enhance the growth of SWCNT in the floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD) process. In the present work, the influence of the reactive flow field on the growth of SWCNT, which is often neglected, is revealed. To address this issue, this work combines experiments and simulations to obtain the characteristics of field distribution within the reactor and the trend of the products. The results of the flow field analysis indicate that thermal buoyancy is the cause of SWCNT growth limitation in FCCVD. By weakening the thermal buoyancy, a homogeneous reaction field is obtained; vortices in the flow field are reduced or even disappear; the temperature field is more homogeneous, and, importantly, the crystallinity of SWCNT is enhanced (IG/ID up to 20-fold). In addition, the decomposition process of the carbon source is also enhanced, thus suppressing the generation of by-products. Based on the results of the small tube experiments, both the increase in temperature and the decrease in residence time increased IG/ID. Furthermore, the distributions of the maximum and minimum diameters in SWCNT imply variations in the growth modes of SWCNT at different temperatures.