Abstract
In this work, siliceous breccia, a natural rock powder composed essentially of SiO2 α-quartz, has been employed directly as a catalyst without any chemical treatment for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) via chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In addition to quartz, it contains dispersed micro-inclusions of iron oxide-hydroxides, goethite or hematite, which act as catalysts to dissociate the hydrocarbon precursors and form carbon nanostructures. The catalytic performance of this powder was evaluated for C2H4 decomposition at 750 °C, with and without H2 flux. Thermal oxidation stability and carbon yield were measured by means of thermogravimetric analysis. Structural and vibrational characterization of the resulting material was carried out by environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and micro Raman spectroscopy. ESEM images show that the H2 addition affects the CNT diameter. We observed that the addition of H2 to the C2H4 flux effectively removes amorphous carbon leading to taller growth of nanotubes. This concept provides a highly economical way for large-scale synthesis of CNTs.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 107433 |
Journal | Diamond and Related Materials |
Volume | 97 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
Funding
The authors would like to thank: F. Trotet, M. Kadar and K. Devaux (ERAMET-SLN, New Caledonia), A. Salaün and C. Rodriguez (ERAMET) for providing the siliceous breccia powders. This work has been developed within SOLSA project ( www.solsa-mining.eu ), funded by the European Commission through H2020 programme (grant number SC5-11d-689868 ).
Funders | Funder number |
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Horizon 2020 Framework Programme | 689868 |
European Commission |
Keywords
- Carbon nanotubes
- Chemical vapor deposition
- Fe catalyst
- Iron oxyhydroxides
- Siliceous breccia