THE SIMULATION STUDY ON THE BEHAVIOR OF CARBON ATOMS DURING INTERACTION WITH METAL CATALYST

I n t roduct ion Based on the catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) method [1,2], it is now possible to obtain a wide range of carbon nanotubes from single-walled, double-walled to multi-walled with various diameters (Figure 1). The CCVD method is now considered to be the most promising method for producing carbon nanotubes in quantity, which enables the lower-cost production of carbon nanotube. The study of the CCVD process is now moving toward the development of a way to control the quality, diameter, growth direction, and chirality of the nanotubes. There are some attempts to control the growth direction of the tubes [3,4] that has either grown aligned tubes or grown single walled tubes between the patterned pillars. Although not fully controllable, the studies have paved the way to the real control of the growth direction. Not much progress has been made for the control of quality, diameter and chirality control. The main reason for this is the lack of knowledge on the growth mechanism of the carbon nanotube and the empirical nature of the nanotube growth experiments. It is well known that the critical factor for the growth of the tube in a CCVD process i