Effects of plasma conditions on the growth of single-walled carbonnanotubes from nonmagnetic catalysts

This paper describes experimental research on synthesis of single walled carbon nanotubes (swnts) fromnonmagnetic catalysts with plasma chemical vapor deposition (pcvd). nonmagnetic metal particles were found tohave catalytic activity for the growth of swnts under a specific plasma condition. an actinometry method based onoptical emission spectroscopy (oes) measurements was also used to determine the molar fraction of monoatomichydrogen and carbon species produced in plasma. we found that methane conversion is remarkably promoted usingplasma which enhances growth of swnts over nonmagnetic catalysts. it is well known that metals such as au, ag,and pt have low adsorption and dissociation for catalytic reactions. hence external forces such as methanehydrogendischarge is required for high dissociation of hydrocarbons. plasma–catalyst reaction system is able togenerate desired reactants for swnts growth from nonmagnetic catalysts.