Establishing the most favorable metal–carbon bond strength for carbon nanotube catalysts

Abstract

We have studied a wide range of transition metals to find potential carbon nanotube (CNT) catalysts for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) production. The adhesion strengths between a CNT and a metal cluster were calculated using first principle density functional theory (DFT) for all 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd row transition metals. We have developed the criterion that the metal–carbon adhesion strength per bond must fulfill a Goldilocks principle for catalyzing CNT growth and used it to identify, besides the well known catalysts Fe, Co and Ni, a number of other potential catalysts, namely Y, Zr, Rh, Pd, La, Ce and Pt. Our results are consistent with previous experiments performed either in a carbon arc discharge environment or by a CVD-process with regard to CNT catalyst activity.