Method for characterizing carbon nanotubes by using scanning electron microscope

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10020191-B2
Application number	US-201715661061-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 27, 2017
Priority date	Oct 31, 2016
Publication date	Jul 10, 2018
Grant date	Jul 10, 2018

Abstract

A method for characterizing carbon nanotubes comprising: providing a conductive substrate and applying an insulating layer on the conductive substrate; forming a carbon nanotube structure on a surface of the insulating layer, the carbon nanotube structure includes at least one carbon nanotube; placing the carbon nanotube structure under a scanning electron microscope, adjusting the scanning electron microscope with an accelerating voltage ranging from 5˜20 KV, a dwelling time ranging 6˜20 microseconds and a magnification ranging from 10000˜100000 times; taking photos of the carbon nanotube structure with the scanning electron microscope; and, obtaining a photo of the carbon nanotube structure, the photo shows the at least one carbon nanotube and a background.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for characterizing carbon nanotubes comprising:
providing a conductive substrate and applying an insulating layer on the conductive substrate;
forming a carbon nanotube structure on a surface of the insulating layer, the carbon nanotube structure includes at least one carbon nanotube;
placing the carbon nanotube structure under a scanning electron microscope, adjusting the scanning electron microscope with an accelerating voltage ranging from 5˜20 KV, a dwelling time ranging from 6˜20 microseconds and a magnification ranging from 1000˜100000 times;
taking photos of the carbon nanotube structure with the scanning electron microscope; and
obtaining a photo of the carbon nanotube structure, the photo shows the at least one carbon nanotube and a background.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a material of the conductive substrate is metal, conductive organic material, or a doped conductive material.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a material of the conductive substrate is doped silicon, and a material of the insulating layer is silicon oxide.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a material of the insulating layer is oxide or polymer material.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein a thickness of the insulating layer ranges from 50 nanometers to 300 nanometers.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon nanotube structure is a single carbon nanotube.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon nanotube structure comprises a plurality of carbon nanotubes.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of carbon nanotubes comprises a plurality of metallic carbon nanotubes and a plurality of semiconducting carbon nanotubes.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of carbon nanotubes are parallel with a surface of the insulating layer.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the accelerating voltage is ranged from 15 KV to 20 kV.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dwelling time is in a range from 10 microseconds to 20 microseconds.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the photo shows a background and an image of the carbon nanotube structure.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the carbon nanotube structure comprise a plurality of metallic carbon nanotubes with a color lighter than a color of the background and a plurality of semiconducting carbon nanotubes with a color deeper than the color of the background.

Assignees

• Univ Tsinghua
• Hon Hai Prec Ind Co Ltd

Inventors

• Li Dong-Qi
• Wei Yang
• Jiang Kai-Li
• Fan Shou-Shan

Classifications

• H10P14/3464 Primary

  Nanotubes · CPC title

• Y10S977/742

  Carbon nanotubes, CNTs · CPC title

• H01L51/0048

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G01N23/2251 Primary

  using incident electron beams, e.g. scanning electron microscopy [SEM] · CPC title

• Y10S977/852

  for detection of specific nanostructure sample or nanostructure-related property · CPC title