Role Of Plasma Activation In Kinetics Of Carbon Nanotube Growth In Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

The effect of the acceleration of carbon nanotube (CNT) growth from methane via modification of the gas composition with plasma discharge is studied by means of kinetic modeling. A model of CNT growth describing the detailed gas-phase and surface kinetics of hydrocarbons in catalytic chemical vapor deposition is used. It is shown that the effect of plasma is related to the formation of active species in the gas phase that can easily adsorb and dissociate on the catalyst surface. It is also demonstrated that in addition to the adsorption of carbon precursors, the CNT growth rate can be limited by the gas-phase diffusion of carbon species to the catalyst surface. The critical energy input above which the dominant contribution to CNT growth is provided by non-radical neutral species is calculated and confirmed by analytic estimates. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3699310]