Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.371, No.3-4, 433-437, 2003
Hierarchically ordered carbon tubes
Micropatterns of hierarchically ordered carbon tubes (i.e., ordered carbon microtubes composed of aligned carbon nanotubes) were grown on a film-like iron/silica substrate consisting of ring-like catalyst patterns. The substrates were prepared by a combined technique, in which the sol-gel method was used to prepare catalyst film and transmission electron microscope grids were used as a shadow mask. In comparison with other techniques that involve sophisticated lithography, this approach represents a simple and low-cost way to the micropatterning of aligned carbon nanotubes. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.