Growth and Performance of High-Quality SWCNT Forests on Inconel Foils as Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes.

Large-scale production of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (VA-SWCNTs) on metal foils promises to enable technological advancements in many fields, from functional composites to energy storage to thermal interfaces. In this work, we demonstrate growth of high-quality (G/D > 6, average diameters ∼ 2-3 nm, densities > 10 cm) VA-SWCNTs on Inconel metal for use as a lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode. Scale-up of SWCNT growth on Inconel 625 to 100 cm exhibits nearly invariant CNT structural properties, even when synthesis is performed near atmospheric pressure, and this robustness is attributed to a growth kinetic regime dominated by the carbon precursor diffusion in the bulk gas mixture.