Growth deceleration of vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays: Catalyst deactivation or feedstock diffusion controlled?

Feedstock and byproduct diffusion in the root growth of aligned carbon nanotube arrays is discussed. A non-dimensional modulus is proposed to differentiate catalyst-poisoning controlled growth deceleration from one which is diffusion controlled. It is found that, at the current stage, aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube arrays are usually free of feedstock diffusion resistance while single-walled carbon nanotube arrays are already suffering from a strong diffusion resistance. The method presented here is also able to predict the critical lengths in different CVD processes from which carbon nanotube arrays begin to meet strong diffusion resistance, as well as the possible solutions to this diffusion caused growth deceleration.