Synthesis of Carbon Nanostructures on Iron Nanopowders Obtained by Electrical Explosion of Wires

Abstract

This work presents the results of experiments on synthesis of carbon nanostructures by the method of thermal chemical vapor deposition using iron nanopowders obtained by the method of electrical explosion of wires as catalysts. To study the process of nucleation and growth of individual carbon nanostructures, experiments were conducted not only on nanopowders, but also on the separated clusters. To determine the optimum conditions of the carbon nanostructures synthesis and lower temperature limit, experiments were performed at different temperatures (300–700 °C) and pressures (100–400 mbar). The experiments have shown that the lower temperature limit for carbon nanostructures synthesis on the iron nanopowders is 350 °C and in this process the growth of carbon nanostructures is not so massive. Stable growth of carbon nanostructures for nanopowders as well as for the separated clusters began from 400 °C during the entire range of pressures. In contrast to the carbon nanostructures on nanopowders, in the case of the separated clusters a strong<br />dependence of their nucleation and growth on temperature and pressure was traced.