US Patent 7678672 - CNT fabricated from crystallography oriented catalyst

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7678672.html

Usually the growth of carbon nanotubes from catalyst material results in nanotube arrays which are either disordered or oriented in a vertical direction with respect to a substrate. This patent from Northrop Grumman teaches a method which generates horizontally oriented nanotube arrays by controlling the crystalline orientation of the catalyst. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of synthesizing a carbon nanowire comprising:

forming a crystallographically oriented catalyst layer on at least a portion of a substrate, the crystallographically oriented catalyst layer having an exposed portion adjacent to the substrate; and

forming the carbon nanowire on the substrate in accordance with a growth parameter, wherein the crystallographically oriented catalyst layer has a predetermined crystallographic configuration so as to control the growth parameter associated with the carbon nanowire.