Effect of different parameters on the morphology of carbon nanotubes structures grown by floating catalyst method

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were synthesized by a Floating Catalyst (FC) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method in a horizontal reactor. This method led to achieve high yield synthesis of CNTs with controlled structure. Present study showed that iron (III) chloride hexahydrate (FeCl3. 6H20) was an efficient FC precursor for CVD of methane into CNTs. The effects of different process parameters such as reaction temperature and reaction time on the morphology of CNTs had been investigated. The deposited layers containing CNTs and CNFs were analyzed by the Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and the yield of the as-grown nanotubes was investigated by the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). © 2011 Asian Network for Scientific Information.