A low-temperature technique and new strategy for the dual growth of carbon nanotubes and nanorods through the confinement of explosive materials inside a porous structure

Abstract

In this paper, we report a low temperature technique and new strategy for the dual growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanorods (CNRs) with alumina nanoparticles to avoid the high temperature required for CNT and CNR production and their assembling behaviour. In this trend, X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis indicated that the porous system of aluminium species was prepared and saturated with the crystalline structure of ammonium nitrate to act as a solid explosive composite and caused alcohol decomposition inside a pressurized vessel at 250 °C. TEM images and the Raman results confirmed that the CNTs had grown at 250 °C through the decomposition of methanol inside the boehmite structure. Also, the TEM images revealed that the growth of CNTs depended on the ratio between the methanol and the solid explosive. By calcination at 600 °C, the Raman results indicated that the CNTs became more ordered and had fewer defects. In the case of changing methanol to ethanol, the results indicated that methanol was more favorable than ethanol for growing CNTs by this technique. Also, it indicated that ethanol was a good source for producing carbon nanorods. Finally, we concluded that this was probably the first time that carbon nanotubes or nanorods had been prepared at 250 °C and their aggregations prevented through their dual growth with alumina nanoparticles. This dual growth approach is a very promising strategy for building homogeneous nanocomposites based on carbon nanotubes and nanorods.