Catalytic effect of Fe, Ni, Co and Mo on the CNTs production

Abstract

In this work a chemical vapour deposition (CVD) process was implemented and automatized for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Looking the possibility to make an extensive use of biogas, and also for decreasing the costs of the process, methane was used as carbon source. Different CNT structures were obtained using Fe, Ni, Co and also Mo nanoparticles, supported on silica-gel as catalyst for CNT's growing. The number of walls, the morphological effects and efficiency of the process showed dependency on the catalyst type. Cobalt helps the growing of CNTs with fewer layers, compared with Ni, Fe and Mo. Low quality structures are mainly obtained with Fe nanoparticles. Cobalt promotes small diameters in carbon nanotubes and Ni promotes the best quality and yielding during the CVD process.