Patterned growth of high-quality single-walled carbon nanotubes from dip-coated catalyst

Here, we show that the conventional concept of using SiO2-patterned Si substrates to selectively grow three-dimensional (3D) carbon nanotube structures can also be applied to dip coating. Patterned growth of high-quality vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can be easily obtained by this protocol. Apart from the sintering of catalyst into Si at high temperatures, the difference in surface wettability between Si and SiO2 also plays an important role in this selective growth, which we utilize in a novel method of patterning SWNT growth on chemically modified surfaces.