Here we show videos of carbon nanotube forests and microstructures growing, as they are visible to the naked eye! The nanotubes are growing from a catalyst-coated silicon substrate which is placed on a suspended platform which is heated resistively as shown below [1,2]. Passing a current through this suspended section causes it to heat to the reaction temperature of approximately 800 C. In these videos, the structures are growing at approximately 0.1 mm per minute.
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| [1] A.J. Hart, L.C. van Laake, A.H. Slocum. Desktop Growth of Carbon Nanotube Monoliths with In Situ Optical Imaging. Small 3(5):772-777, 2007. |
| [2] L.C. van Laake, A.J. Hart, A.H. Slocum. A Suspended Heated Silicon Platform for Rapid Thermal Control of Surface Reactions with Application to Carbon Nanotube Synthesis. Review of Scientific Instruments 78:083901, 2007. |