Preparation of Carbon Nanohorn Aggregates by Cavity Arc Jet in Open Air

Abstract

Carbon nanomaterials were prepared by a new cavity arc jet method under open-air conditions. The cavity arc jet was an electric arc plasma jet spouted from the narrow cavity formed by sandwiching a thin insulator with a partial notch between two graphite electrodes. The soot was obtained by quick cooling of the carbon arc jet, using the collection plate crossing the arc jet, and was mostly composed of round particles 30–150 nm in diameter. Microscopic observation revealed that more than 30% of the particles were carbon nanohorn aggregates.