Synthesis and purification of bimetallic catalysed carbon nanotubes in a horizontal CVD reactor

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were synthesised by a conventional chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method using acetylene as carbon source and a bimetallic catalyst of Fe–Co supported on a CaCO3 support. The CNTs were characterised by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy (RS), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The TEM images show clustered CNTs and reveal the outer and inner diameters of these nanomaterials. The XRD analysis shows the characteristic broad peak of graphitised carbon; the RS indicates that these materials have a high degree of crystallinity while the TGA shows the high thermal stability of the materials. EDS analysis also indicates that the purification method employed was able to remove the impurities in the CNT samples.