Growth of ultrahigh density vertically aligned carbon nanotube forests for interconnects.

We present a general catalyst design to synthesize ultrahigh density, aligned forests of carbon nanotubes by cyclic deposition and annealing of catalyst thin films. This leads to nanotube forests with an area density of at least 10(13) cm(-2), over 1 order of magnitude higher than existing values, and close to the limit of a fully dense forest. The technique consists of cycles of ultrathin metal film deposition, annealing, and immobilization. These ultradense forests are needed to use carbon nanotubes as vias and interconnects in integrated circuits and thermal interface materials. Further density increase to 10(14) cm(-2) by reducing nanotube diameter is possible, and it is also applicable to nanowires.

Heat release rate measurement in turbulent flames

The dominant industrial approach for the reduction of NO x emissions in industrial gas turbines is the lean pre-mixed prevaporized concept. The main advantage of this concept is the lean operation of the combustion process; this decreases the heat release rate from the flame and results in a reduction in operating temperature. The direct measurement of heat release rates via simultaneous laser induced fluorescence of OH and CH 2O radicals using planar laser induced fluorescence. The product of the two images correlated with the forward production rate of the HCO radical, which in turn has correlated well with heat release rates from premixed hydrocarbon flames. The experimental methodology of the measurement of heat release rate and applications in different turbulent premixed flames were presented. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 7th World Congress of Chemical Engineering (Glasgow, Scotland 7/10-14/2005).