Structural anisotropy of magnetically aligned single wall carbon nanotube films

Abstract

Thick films of aligned single wall carbon nanotubes and ropes have been produced by filtration/deposition from suspension in strong magnetic fields. We measured mosaic distributions of rope orientations in the film plane, for samples of different thicknesses. For an ∼1 μm film the full width at half maximum (FWHM) derived from electron diffraction is 25°–28°. The FWHM of a thicker film (∼7 μm) measured by x-ray diffraction is slightly broader, 35±3°. Aligned films are denser than ordinary filter-deposited ones, and much denser than as-grown material. Optimization of the process is expected to yield smaller FWHMs and higher densities.