Fabrication of vertically aligned N-doped carbon nanotube arrays on vermiculite by horizonal chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Efficient synthesis of large-scale vertically aligned nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube arrays (VA-NCNTs) has always been a challenge. In this study, we proposed a facile way to obtain mass VA-NCNTs between vermiculite layers by horizonal chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Vermiculite with layered compound as the catalyst substrate, Fe and Mo as the active metal phase is evenly distributed between the vermiculite layers, melamine is pyrolyzed as a single source for both carbon and nitrogen to synthesize nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube (CNT) array materials with relatively uniform length and diameter at an optimum temperature of 800 °C. We explored the effect of temperature on synthesis of VA-NCNTs, the results indicated that the VA-NCNTs are sensitive to temperature changes during the CVD synthesis process, the arrangement, diameter, nitrogen content, and the type of nitrogen function of CNTs could be modified. This work contributes to the study of how the growth temperature affecting the morphology of the as-prepared CNTs, and provides a potential method for the controllable mass production of oriented NCNTs.

Keywords:

• Aligned N-doped CNTs
• vermiculite
• horizonal CVD
• melamine

Acknowledgment

The experiment guide of Hua-Fei Li and the thesis guidance of Ning Xie, Ming Pan and Chen Wang, are also greatly appreciated.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

G.-P.D. acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 51762032, 52062033, and 51462022) for financial support of this research.