Chemical Vapor Deposition Synthesis of Carbon Nanotube Using Pyrolysis Gas Products of Apricot Kernel Shell

Abstract

The results of a study of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) growth using apricot stone (AS) as a carbon source are presented. The described method here is two-zone thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) that uses cobalt acetate directly as deposition medium at different geometries under argon flow of 100 mL min–1. Argon gas was fed into the oven until pyrolysis of apricot kernel started. Since pyrolysis started, argon was passed through toluene immersed in hot water in the gas washing flask and sent to the furnace for CNT formation. This method allows the bulk metal acetate surface over a quartz road and in a quartz boat to act as catalyst for CNT growth. Our recent results obtained from the toluene assisted growth. The effect of growth temperature and purification of CNTs was studied. As-grown and purified CNTs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis and surface analysis. High yield of CNTs were obtained over quartz road at 900 °C and at the same temperature with 48 hours deposition time in quartz boat. The obtained CNTs were purified by refluxing using nitric acid.