Effect of the powering frequency on the synthesis of carbon nanostructures by AC arc discharge at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this paper we report about the synthesis of single wall carbon nanohorns and highly convoluted graphite sheets by AC powered arc discharge carried out between pure graphite electrodes. The arc is ignited in air and the arched electrodes are surrounded by a cylindrical collector which collects the synthesized material and contributes to control the synthesis environment. With the purpose of studying the effect of the process variables, in this work we have explored the effect of the powering frequency on the structure of the synthesized material and on the yield of the process. Preliminary experimental results on tests carried out at constant voltage, show that the process yield is strongly influenced by the powering frequency and that higher yields are obtained at low frequency. The structure of the resulting soot has been characterized by transmission electron microscopy. Two kinds of microstructures are found by TEM observation constituted by highly convoluted graphene sheets, having locally the nanohorn morphology, and better organized nano-balls where also graphite nano-sheets can be locally found. The relative abundance of the two kinds of particles appears to depend on the powering frequency with a larger amount of the latter observed in samples synthesized at high frequency.