The Influence of the Density of CNT Arrays on Their Atomic Oxygen Erosion Effects

Abstract

Abstract To investigate the characteristic of carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays with high resistance to the hazardous conditions of atomic oxygen in space environment, the erosion effects of atomic oxygen on CNT arrays with different density have been studied by atomic oxygen simulation equipment. To characterizing the change of the surface morphologies of CNT arrays before and after atomic oxygen exposition, A scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis method have been used. The SEM images shows that the morphologies of the surface of CNT arrays after atomic oxygen experiment are quite different from those before atomic oxygen experiment. The higher density CNT arrays are etched away more uniformly. The erosion yield of the CNT arrays with higher density is much less than that with lower density, which means that the CNT materials have different atomic oxygen erosion yield. The resistance ability of CNT materials to atomic oxygen is depending on their density.