Abstract. The mass production of high purity Carbon Nanotubes CNTs at cheaper rate is becoming the most important factor in the application point of view and most industries today are opting for the Chemical Vapour Deposition CVD technique. The CVD method is the most suitable synthesis method in terms of product quality and quantity. This is due to its flexibility, inexpensive, energy efficient, simple and low cost of fabrication, and ability to produce CNTs in large quantity. This paper reviewed the production of CNTs using the Alcohol Catalytic Chemical Vapour Deposition (ACCVD) technique with emphasis on the influence of hydrocarbon, reaction temperatures, catalyst and substrate materials on the growth of CNTs;

BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF THE PROJECT.

Carbon in its various forms can be referred to as soot, diamond, graphite, coke, Buckey Balls, carbon nanotubes and Fullerenes. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure, also referred to as sheets of graphite rolled into tubes and possess excellent properties due to their symmetric structure (Barros et al., 2006). They are broadly classified into single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). CNTs possess exceptional properties and wide range applications as a result of their high strength, stiffness, thermal and electrical conductivity (Wang et al., 2000), CNTs are designated as attractive material in applications range from nanoelectronics (Tsukagoshi et al., 2002), sensors (Rivas et al., 2007), ultracapacitor (Adewuyi et al., 2007), and field emitters to composites (Ajayan et al., 2000). Reliable growth techniques capable of yielding high-purity material in desirable quantities are critical to realize CNTs potential applications. A number of technological advancements ranging from agriculture, electronics, medicine, aerospace, power, to automobiles can be traced to the applications of CNTs. CNTs can be produced by electric arc discharge method (Iijima 1991), chemical vapour deposition method (Jose- Yacaman et al., 1993), pulsed laser vaporization technique (Guo et al., 1995), and high-pressure carbon monoxide conversion (HiPCO) process (Nikolaev et al., 1999).

In pulse laser vaporization and arc discharge methods, although high quality materials can be produced, the high temperature employed for evaporating the carbon atoms from solid carbon sources (over 2700^oC) make them difficult to scale up the process in a cost-effective way. Also, arc discharge and pulse laser vaporization methods produce CNTs as powder samples in bundles while CVD offers synthesis of CNTs on substrates (Seidel et al., 2003) as well as in powder form (Nikolaev et al., 1999). Additionally, using CVD the diameter (Li et al., 2001) length and orientation (Huang et al., 2003) of CNTs can be effectively controlled.

Hence, chemical vapour decomposition (CVD) method is the most suitable synthesis method in terms of product quality and quantity (Zheng et al., 2002). This is due to its flexibility, inexpensive, energy efficient, simple and low cost of fabrication, to uniformly deposit thin films of materials, even onto nonuniform shapes and ability to produce CNTs in large quantity. Since, there is a huge demand for CNTs production and application for various industrial uses, it is necessary to maximize the yield and minimize the production cost. The major applications of CVD technique take advantage of the unique characteristics of the process, such as the capability of producing materials of exceptionally high purity. The CVD method is currently the best hope for large-scale production of SWNTs. CVD processes can be used to deposit a wide range of conducting, semiconducting, and insulating materials. The aim of this project therefore is to initially developed a model for the synthesis and growth of carbon nanotubes and later proceed to the actual production process.

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