Method for transferring carbon nanotube array and method for forming carbon nanotube structure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9695042-B2
Application number	US-201414310310-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2014
Priority date	Mar 31, 2014
Publication date	Jul 4, 2017
Grant date	Jul 4, 2017

Abstract

A method for transferring a carbon nanotube array includes providing a substitute substrate, a growing substrate, and a carbon nanotube array. The carbon nanotube array is grown on the growing substrate. A carbon nanotube structure can be drawn from the carbon nanotube array. The carbon nanotube structure includes carbon nanotube segments joined end-to-end. The carbon nanotube array is transferred from the growing substrate onto the substitute substrate. During transfer, the structural integrity of the carbon nanotube array is maintained.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for transferring a carbon nanotube array, the method comprising:
providing a substitute substrate, a growing substrate, and a carbon nanotube array grown on the growing substrate, the carbon nanotube array having a bottom surface adjacent to the growing substrate and a top surface away from the growing substrate, the carbon nanotube array being configured for drawing a carbon nanotube structure therefrom, the carbon nanotube structure comprising a plurality of carbon nanotubes joined end to end;
transferring the carbon nanotube array from the growing substrate to the substitute substrate, the carbon nanotube array still being configured for drawing the carbon nanotube structure from the substitute substrate, comprising:
contacting a surface of the substitute substrate to the top surface of the carbon nanotube array; and
separating the substitute substrate from the growing substrate, thereby separating the bottom surface of the carbon nanotube array from the growing substrate.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon nanotube structure is a carbon nanotube film or a carbon nanotube wire.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the surface of the substitute substrate and the top surface of the carbon nanotube array are combined only by van der Waals attractive forces.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon nanotube array comprises a plurality of carbon nanotubes, and during the separating the carbon nanotube array from the growing substrate, substantially all carbon nanotubes are simultaneously detached from the growing substrate.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon nanotube array comprises a plurality of carbon nanotubes, and the carbon nanotubes of the carbon nanotube array are detached from the growing substrate along a growing direction of the carbon nanotubes.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the growing substrate comprises a growing surface for growing the carbon nanotube array, a moving direction of at least one of the substitute substrate and the growing substrate is substantially perpendicular to the growing surface of the growing substrate during the moving of the at least one of the substitute substrate and the growing substrate.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a bonding force between the substitute substrate and the carbon nanotube array is larger than a bonding force between the growing substrate and the carbon nanotube array, and is smaller than van der Waals attractive force between carbon nanotubes in the carbon nanotube array.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein a material of the substitute substrate is poly(dimethylsiloxane).

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising applying a pressing force to the carbon nanotube array by the substitute substrate, and the pressing force is less than 2N/cm 2 .

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the growing substrate comprises a growing surface for growing the carbon nanotube array, and the pressing force is substantially perpendicular to the growing surface.

11. A method for forming a carbon nanotube structure, the method comprising:
providing a first substrate, a second substrate, and a carbon nanotube array grown on the first substrate, the carbon nanotube array having a bottom surface adjacent to the first substrate and a top surface away from the first substrate, the carbon nanotube array being configured for drawing a carbon nanotube structure therefrom, the carbon nanotube structure comprising a plurality of carbon nanotubes joined end to end;
contacting a surface of the second substrate to the top surface of the carbon nanotube array;
separating the second substrate from the first substrate, thereby separating the bottom surface of the carbon nanotube array from the first substrate to transfer the carbon nanotube array from the first substrate to the second substrate, the carbon nanotube array still being configured for drawing the carbon nanotube structure from the second substrate; and
drawing the carbon nanotube structure from the carbon nanotube array on the second substrate.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon nanotube array comprises a plurality of carbon nanotubes oriented substantially perpendicular to a growing surface of the growing substrate.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein after contacting a surface of the substitute substrate to the top surface of the carbon nanotube array, the carbon nanotube array is sandwiched between the growing substrate and the substitute substrate.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein after transferring the carbon nanotube array from the growing substrate to the substitute substrate, the carbon nanotube array comprises a plurality of carbon nanotubes oriented substantially perpendicular to the surface of the substitute substrate.

Assignees

• Univ Tsinghua
• Hon Hai Prec Ind Co Ltd

Inventors

• Wei Yang
• Wei Hao-Ming
• Jiang Kai-Li
• Fan Shou-Shan

Classifications

• C01B31/0253

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• B82Y40/00 Primary

  Manufacture or treatment of nanostructures · CPC title

• C01B32/168 Primary

  After-treatment · CPC title