Effects of catalyst precursors on carbon nanowires by using ethanol catalytic combustion technique

Abstract

Iron nitrate, nickel nitrate and cobalt nitrate were used as catalyst precursors to study their effects on carbon nanowires synthesized by ethanol catalytic combustion (ECC) process. The as-grown carbon nanowires were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The results show that relatively uniform nanowires will be formed when the catalyst precursor is iron nitrate; while helical structure or disordered structure will be formed when the catalyst precursor is nickel nitrate or cobalt nitrate.