title: Re-grown aligned carbon nanotubes with improved field emission.
abstract: In this work, a simple technique to improve the field emission property of multi-walled carbon nanotubes is presented. Re-grown multi-walled carbon nanotubes are grown on the same substrates after the as-grown multi-walled carbon nanotubes are transferred to other substrates using polydimethylsiloxane as intermediation. For the duration of the synthesis of the re-grown multi-walled carbon nanotubes, similar synthesis parameters used in growing the as-grown multi-walled carbon nanotubes are utilized. As a form of possible application, field emission studies show -2.6 times improvement in field enhancement factor and more uniform emission for the re-grown multi-walled carbon nanotubes. In addition, the turn-on field is reduced from 2.85 V/microm to 1.40 V/microm. Such significant improvements are attributed to new emission sites comprising of sharp carbonaceous impurities encompassing both tip and upper portion of the multi-walled carbon nanotubes. As such, this technique presents a viable route for the production of multi-walled carbon nanotubes with better field emission quality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Blk S12, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, 2 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117542, Singapore.
authors.forename: Xiaodai
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Yanwu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Binni
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Varghese
authors.forename: Xingyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Andrew Thye Shen
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Wee
authors.forename: Chorng-Haur
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Sow
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010316:Particle Size; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon