Review of Image Analysis for the Characterization of Vertically Aligned Nanotubes

Abstract

Nowadays, the development of new technology is strongly based on nanomaterials study, such as vertically aligned nanotubes, which are widely used in different fields of industry. Properties of these materials depend on the features of nanotubes. Measurement of these characteristics is performed by a nanotechnologist on images obtained by techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), however this process is mostly performed manually. When the characterization of a large sample of images is necessary, this task can become slow, laborious and subjective. This paper reviews standard methods in image analysis for the characterization of vertically aligned nanotubes without the use of specialized software. The methods have been grouped into four categories: SEM image restoration, nanotubes segmentation, feature extraction and validation; these correspond to the image analysis stages. Results of applying these methods on images acquired with scanning electron microscopy are also shown.