AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Thin Film Wednesday Sessions
       Session TF+MI+NS-WeM

Paper TF+MI+NS-WeM5
Metal Oxide Aerogel Patterning by CO2 Laser Etching of ALD-coated Carbon Nanotube Macro-Structures

Wednesday, November 9, 2016, 9:20 am, Room 105A

Session: ALD and Nanostructures
Presenter: Jesse Jur, North Carolina State University
Authors: C. Aksu, North Carolina State University
P.D. Bradford, North Carolina State University
J.S. Jur, North Carolina State University
Correspondent: Click to Email
Patterning techniques of metal oxide foam architectures embedded within an ALD-coated carbon nanotube interconnected matrix are defined. Three dimensionally interconnected networks of carbon nanotube are produced from spinnable vertically aligned CNT arrays in which CNTs make. Atomic layer deposition is used to functionalize the surface of the CNTs in the array. Prior work has demonstrated that the CNT networks can be sacrificially removed to form aerogel architectures of the ALD material. In this study, we present a simple and scalable method to fabricate macro-sized structures of ALD alumina foams embedded in the carbon nanotube foam architecture via a CO2 continuous wave laser etching. Specifically, we have demonstrated the ability to ALD modify the CNT in large macro-structures (>1 cm2) and subsequently remove the CNT from specified areas, leading to the complex hybrid alumina-CNT periodic structures. The effects of ALD coating thickness are inspected by in-situ heating transmission electron microscopy methods and by high resolution scanning electron microscopy. Factors relating to manufacturability (i.e. etching speed and power) and dimension stability (i.e. laser etch size) are defined to identify scale-up opportunities.