Agglomerates of amorphous carbon nanoparticles synthesized by a solution-phase method

Abstract

A novel solution-phase method is developed for preparation of agglomerates of amorphous carbon nanoparticles under ambient atmosphere by the reaction of ferrocene and ammonium chloride in diglycol at 200 °C. Samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and N 2 adsorption–desorption isotherms. It is found that the nanoparticles are complete amorphous and agglomerate together due to the strong surface tension. The agglomerates of amorphous carbon nanoparticles with a diameter of 20–50 nm have a wide size distribution of mesopores with a Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area of 75.2 m 2 g − 1 . It is proposed that the dissolved reactants uniformly dispersing in the solutions could react at a molecular level to form uniform carbon nanoparticles.