Nanocarbons: Efficient synthesis using natural lava as supported catalyst

Abstract

Low-cost mass production of CNTs becomes prerequisite for their applications in chemistry and catalysis in which the availability of large amounts of material with well-defined surface, chemical and mechanical properties is required. Natural occurring iron oxides in volcanic lavas are used as catalysts for CNT synthesis in the well-established CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process while the lava itself acts as support. As in a common CVD process, the quality of the CNTs can be controlled by the synthesis parameters such as flow rate, hydrocarbon to hydrogen ratio and growth temperature. © 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA,.