Characterization of vertically aligned carbon nanotube forests grown on stainless steel surfaces

TL;DR

This paper characterizes the structure, mechanical properties, wettability, and adhesion of vertically aligned carbon nanotube forests grown on stainless steel, revealing how substrate composition and morphology influence CNT properties and performance.

Contribution

It provides detailed correlations between stainless steel substrate characteristics and CNT forest properties, advancing understanding of direct growth effects on metal substrates.

Findings

Substrate composition affects CNT micro-structure and properties.

CNT forests exhibit strong adhesion influenced by substrate morphology.

Mechanical and wetting properties are governed by structure-property relationships.

Abstract

Vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) forests are a particularly interesting class of nanomaterials, because they combine multifunctional properties, such as high energy absorption, compressive strength, recoverability and super-hydrophobicity with light weight. These characteristics make them suitable for application as coating, protective layers and antifouling substrates for metallic pipelines and blades. Direct growth of CNT forests on metals offers the possibility to transfer the tunable CNT functionalities directly onto the desired substrates. Here, we focus on characterizing the structure and mechanical properties, as well as wettability and adhesion of CNT forests grown on different types of stainless steel. We investigate the correlations between composition and morphology of the steel substrates with the micro-structure of the CNTs, and reveal how the latter ultimately controls the mechanical and wetting properties of the CNT forest. Additionally, we study the influence of substrate morphology on the adhesion of CNTs to their substrate. We highlight that the same structure-property relationships govern the mechanical performance of CNT forests grown on steels and on Si.