We present fabrication and characterization of a membrane based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and parylene. Carbon nanotubes have shown orders of magnitude enhancement in gas and water permeability compared to estimates generated by conventional theories [1, 2]. Large area membranes that exhibit flux enhancement characteristics of carbon nanotubes may provide an economical solution to a variety of...

Films of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with a few μm thickness were grown by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on quartz substrates. Low-temperature CVD from ethanol was performed by using densely mono-dispersed Co-Mo catalyst of ≈ 1.0 – 2.0 nm prepared on quartz substrates by a dip-coating method. Continuous reduction of catalysts with Ar/H2 (3% H2) during C...

Confocal microscopy is introduced as a new and generally applicable method for the characterization of the vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNT) forest height. With this technique process control is significantly intensified. The topography of the substrate and VACNT can be mapped with a height resolution down to 15 nm. The advantages of confocal microscopy, compared to scanning electron ...

Self-assembled bundling and catalyst removal can enhance the field emission stability and density of vertically-aligned multiwalled carbon nanotubes (VA-MWCNTs). These catalystfree, opened tip, VA-MWCNTs offered better emission stability than the as grown samples. Both the emission stability and density were further enhanced as the opened-tip MWCNTs self-assembled into arrays of conical bundles...

The surface chemistry of plasma fluorinated vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (vCNT) is correlated to the CF4 plasma chemical composition. The results obtained via FTIR and mass spectrometry are combined with the XPS and Raman analysis of the sample surface showing the dependence on different plasma parameters (power, time and distance from the plasma region) on the resulting fluorination. Ph...

The ability to monitor intracellular events in real time is paramount to advancing fundamental biological and clinical science. We present the first demonstration of a direct interface of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (VASWCNTs) with eukaryotic cells, RAW 264.7 mouse macrophage cell line. The cells were cultured on indium tin oxide with VASWCNTs. VASWCNTs entered the cells n...

Due to their mechanical robustness, electrical conductivity, and porosity, vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are an intriguing material for microfluidics. Recently, Chen and colleagues showed that functionalized CNT features can efficiently capture and filter particles in microfluidic flows; and permeability was characterized using CNT-blocked channels. Here, we present flow characteri...

By controlling the timing and duration of hydrogen exposure in a fixed thermal process, we tuned the diameters of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within a vertically aligned film by a factor of 2, and tuned the areal densities by an order of magnitude. The CNT structure is correlated with the catalyst morphology, suggesting that while chemical reduction of the catalyst layer is required for growth, pro...

An all-fiber passive laser mode locking is realized with a vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotube film that can be transferred onto an arbitrary substrate using only hot water. A D-shaped fiber is employed as the substrate for the evanescent field interaction of propagating light with the nanotubes. The scheme highlights the efficient interaction achieved by the nanotube alignment as ...