Then, the nanoparticles generated from the spark discharge were used as seed catalytic nanoparticles for CNT synthesis. Figure 1 Schematics of spark discharge process and patterned growth of CNTs with different densities. (a) Schematic of nanoparticle generation and deposition process. Aerosol nanoparticles were generated by spark discharge and passed

onto the cooled substrate sitting on the Peltier cooler. In the aerosol, small Vadimezan manufacturer nanoparticles moved to the substrate because of the thermophoresis effect and were deposited through a hole in the patterned mask. The quantity of deposited nanoparticles is proportional to the deposition time. (b) A short deposition time leads to low-density CNTs. (c) After enough deposition time, vertically aligned CNTs grow. We were able to analyze the size distribution of the nanoparticles before deposition through a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS). The aerosol that flowed into SMPS through nitrogen at 500 sccm was analyzed for 150 s to measure the size and number of the AZD5582 ic50 nanoparticles, and the measurement was repeated five times

to calculate the average value. Through this analysis, we were able to find the size distribution of nanoparticles in the aerosol; the diameter of the nanoparticles was distributed from 4.5 to 165.5 nm, and the mean diameter was 40.8 nm. CNTs were synthesized by ADAMTS5 thermal CVD in a furnace. The SiO2 substrate was separated from the shadow mask and loaded into the quartz tube of the furnace for thermal CVD at a pressure of several VX-680 solubility dmso millitorr. Nitrogen gas was passed through the quartz tube to prevent the oxidation of the iron catalyst and to clean the inside while the temperature was increasing up to 700°C. When the temperature stabilized, the carrier gas was replaced with a mixture of ammonia gas and acetylene gas for 10 min. In order to grow CNTs vertically, a mixture ratio of 3:1 was used, i.e., 90 sccm of ammonia gas and 30 sccm of acetylene gas [17].

Results and discussion Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of a patterned CNT line are shown in Figure 2. To confirm that a clear pattern of densely grown CNTs could be formed, we deposited the catalyst for 1 h and synthesized CNTs by supplying the mixture of ammonia gas and acetylene gas for 10 min. As shown in Figure 2b,c, clearly patterned and aligned CNTs were synthesized. The 100-μm-thick stainless steel shadow mask was laser-cut to form continuous line patterns of 100 μm in width. However, the CNTs patterned through these 100-μm-wide line patterns were about 43 μm in width, as shown in Figure 2. This reduction in the line width was caused by the temperature gradient induced by the Peltier cooler, as described in previous work [12, 13].