Exfoliated Molybdenum Disulfide as a Platform for Carbon Nanotube Growth - Properties and Characterization

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been of great interest because of their unique electrical, structural, and mechanical properties. Many methods for obtaining CNTs are known. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been recognized as the most popular and practical synthetic method for obtaining CNTs, with high purity, high yield, and low cost. Catalyst components are usually transient metals such as Fe, Co, and Ni, and hydrocarbons are used as a feedstock for the CNT synthesis. The metal particles are supported on the inorganic porous materials, such as alumina (Al2O3), silica (SiO2), magnesia (MgO), zeolite, and mesoporous silica. In this work, we propose a new platform for the deposition of metal nanoparticles and the growth of CTs. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has gained much attention in the material fields. The principal aim of the present work is to compare the synergetic effect of MoS2 and CTs and to investigate the possibility of using the material in various fields. The obtained material was tested for its use in fire retardation. We compared the effect of adding bulk MoS2 and MoS2/CTs into the polymer matrix.