Growth of few-wall carbon nanotubes with narrow diameter distribution over Fe-Mo-MgO catalyst by methane/acetylene catalytic decomposition.

Vladimir A Labunov,Boris G Shulitski,Alena L Prudnikava,Maziar Shakerzadeh,Ivan Komissarov,Beng Kang Tay,Alexander S Basaev,Yuriy P Shaman

doi:10.1186/1556-276x-7-102

Abstract

Few-wall carbon nanotubes were synthesized by methane/acetylene decomposition over bimetallic Fe-Mo catalyst with MgO (1:8:40) support at the temperature of 900°C. No calcinations and reduction pretreatments were applied to the catalytic powder. The transmission electron microscopy investigation showed that the synthesized carbon nanotubes [CNTs] have high purity and narrow diameter distribution. Raman spectrum showed that the ratio of G to D band line intensities of IG/ID is approximately 10, and the peaks in the low frequency range were attributed to the radial breathing mode corresponding to the nanotubes of small diameters. Thermogravimetric analysis data indicated no amorphous carbon phases. Experiments conducted at higher gas pressures showed the increase of CNT yield up to 83%. Mössbauer spectroscopy, magnetization measurements, X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and electron diffraction were employed to evaluate the nature of catalyst particles.

Highlights

Carbon nanotubes [carbon nanotube (CNT)] due to their incredible properties have attracted scientific and practical interest for almost 20 years [1]
We describe the developed technological approach for a simple and efficient few-wall carbon nanotube (FWNT) synthesis
The as-synthesized product was studied by transmission electron microscopy [TEM] (Figure 2)

Summary

Introduction

Carbon nanotubes [CNTs] due to their incredible properties have attracted scientific and practical interest for almost 20 years [1]. High electrical and thermal conductance, striking mechanical strength, and an especially unique chirality-dependence electronic structure make CNTs one of the most promising alternatives to replace some of today’s materials used in microelectronics manufacturing. Due to an enormous field enhancement factor and high conductivity, CNTs are perfect sources for electron emission [2]. Tremendous numbers of attempts have been made to use carbon nanotube arrays as the field-emission cathodes [FECs] [3]. Single-wall carbon nanotubes [SWNT] provide a large field enhancement factor, low threshold voltage, and high emission currents, but the substantial degradation of emission currents is a serious bottleneck for the. Metal alloys such as Co-Ni [7], Fe-Co [8,9], Fe-Mo [6,10], and Co-

Results

Discussion

Conclusion