Disclosed herein is an apparatus and method for synthesizing carbon nanotubes, including a
fuel supply unit for supplying a large amount of
liquid metal catalyst mixture using a
syringe pump for quantitatively supplying a
liquid metal catalyst mixture, mixed with
hydrocarbon-based
liquid carbon sources such as
xylene,
toluene,
benzene and the like, and
metal catalytic particles, such as iron,
nickel,
cobalt,
molybdenum and the like, and a general liquid pump for supplying a
liquid metal catalyst mixture depending on the amount thereof; an
evaporation unit for evaporating and atomizing the liquid
metal catalyst mixture supplied from the
fuel supply unit into precursors having a
uniform size on the nanometer scale; a carrier
gas supply unit for transferring particles atomized in the
evaporation unit to a reactor and transferring carrier gas, having an influence on the synthesis of carbon nanotubes, to the reactor; a horizontally oriented reaction unit for synthesizing carbon nanotubes in large quantities using the carrier gas supplied from the carrier
gas supply unit and the precursors formed in the
evaporation unit; a filtering unit comprising a filter for filtering residual particles among the atomized particles synthesized into carbon nanotubes in the horizontally oriented reaction unit and some of the carbon nanotubes synthesized in the
vapor phase; and a vacuum generation unit comprising a
vacuum pump configured to be connected with the filtering unit, decrease pressure in the reactor, and remove
oxygen remaining in the reactor, or a continuous collection unit in the case where the apparatus includes a vertical type reaction unit.