Large-area growth of ultra-high-density single-walled carbon nanotube arrays on sapphire surface

A scalable approach to obtaining high-density, large-area single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) arrays is essential for realizing the full potential of SWNTs in practical electronic devices; this is still a great challenge. Here, we report an improved synthetic method for large-area growth of ultra-high-density SWNT arrays on sapphire surfaces by combining Trojan catalysts (released from the substrate, to assure ultra-high density) with Mo nanoparticles (loaded on the surface, to stabilize the released Trojan catalysts) as cooperating catalysts. Dense and perfectly aligned SWNTs covered the entire substrate and the local density was as high as 160 tubes/μm. Field-effect transistors (FETs) built on such arrays gave an output current density of -488 μA/μm at the drain-source voltage (V_ds) = the gate-source voltage (V_gs) =–2 V, corresponding to an on-conductance per width of 244 μS/μm. These results confirm the wide range of potential applications of Trojan-Mo catalysts in the structure-controlled growth of SWNTs.