Synthesis of carbon nanofibers by ethanol catalytic combustion

Abstract

The effects of position of substrates in flames, preparation time, stability of flames and catalyst precursors on carbon nano fibers are investigated in ethanol catalytic combustion. For investigating the effects of these influence factors on carbon nano fibers, several sets of controlled experiments are performed, such as different position of substrates, different preparation time, stable and unstable flames, different catalyst precursors. In our experiments, the catalyst precursors are iron nitrate, cobalt nitrate, nickel nitrate, and iron chloride, cobalt chloride, nickel chloride. The as-synthesized products are characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Our results show that the optimal position of substrates in flames is more than 1 cm and less than 2.5 cm for massive yield, the optimal preparation time is more than 5 min and less than 30 min for massive yield, stable flames would be tent to synthesize carbon nano fibers with single-type morphology and could improve the graphitization of carbon nano fibers, and the catalyst precursors have obvious effects on carbon nanofibers.