Effects of Temperature on the Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes by FeCl₃ as a Floating Catalyst Precursor

Abstract

The influence of temperature on the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using FeCl₃ as a floating catalyst (FC) precursor and methane as a carbon source was studied. FeCl₃ was found to be an efficient FC precursor for methane CVD into CNTs without the need of introducing hydrogen in feed. The optimum temperature for growing CNTs was 1050°C, giving off 80% yield of CNTs. The electron microscopy analysis shows that the produced CNTs possessed the average diameter of 30 nm and Raman scattering reveals the low I_D/I_G ratio of 0.62, indicating the presence of high graphitized structure.

Keywords:

• Floating catalyst
• carbon nanotubes
• FeCl₃
• temperature
• degree of graphitization

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) under the Research University Grant Scheme (Project A/C No. 814003) and the Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) under the Commercialization of Research & Development Fund (CRDF) (Project A/C No. MBF065-USM/05).