  Vertically aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) forests are a particularly
interesting class of nanomaterials, because they combine multifunctional
properties, such as high energy absorption, compressive strength,
recoverability and super-hydrophobicity with light weight. These
characteristics make them suitable for application as coating, protective
layers and antifouling substrates for metallic pipelines and blades. Direct
growth of CNT forests on metals offers the possibility to transfer the tunable
CNT functionalities directly onto the desired substrates. Here, we focus on
characterizing the structure and mechanical properties, as well as wettability
and adhesion of CNT forests grown on different types of stainless steel. We
investigate the correlations between composition and morphology of the steel
substrates with the micro-structure of the CNTs, and reveal how the latter
ultimately controls the mechanical and wetting properties of the CNT forest.
Additionally, we study the influence of substrate morphology on the adhesion of
CNTs to their substrate. We highlight that the same structure-property
relationships govern the mechanical performance of CNT forests grown on steels
and on Si.
