Abstract
Abstract In this study, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were produced using catalyst-assisted chemical vapour deposition method. Ferrocene was used as the catalyst. Effects of carbon sources (acetylene and methane) and production conditions (temperature and type of carrier gas) on the quality of as-produced CNTs were investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), electronic precision balance (EPB) and raman spectroscopy. The best of as-produced CNTs was purified and functionalized using carboxylation protocol. The surface chemistry, thermal stability, textural property and crystallinity of functionalized CNTs (FCNTs) were obtained using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), N2 physisorption at 77 K and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. CNT produced from methane and argon at 900 °C has the best quality with ID/IG ratio of 0.17 while the CNT produced from acetylene and mixture of argon and hydrogen at 1000 °C has the highest yield of 1.78 mg/s. FTIR confirms successful functionalization of CNTs. The degree of functionalization obtained from TGA is consistent with that of EPB. N2 physisorption at 77 bK indicates increase in pore volume and average pore size of the FCNTs indicating more adsorption sites for the adsorbate. Thereby suggesting that FCNT could be a good filler in membrane synthesis for gas separation.
Published Version
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