Growth of Nitrogen‐Containing Carbon Nanotubes by Thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition

We report the formation of well‐aligned high concentration nitrogen‐containing carbon nanotube (N‐CNT) bundles on quartz using thermal chemical vapor deposition technique. The N‐CNTs were deposited by pyrolysis of ferrocene, xylene and acetonitrile mixture at 900°C in an Ar environment. The average length of these N‐CNTs, as estimated from scanning electron microscopy images, was around 60–80 µm. Energy dispersive X‐ray analysis showed that the concentration of nitrogen in the CNTs was 12–13%. Transmission electron microscopy of these N‐CNTs exhibited a bamboo‐like structure. X‐ray diffraction revealed the structure of N‐CNTs as C₃N₄.

Keywords:

• nitrogen containing carbon nanotubes
• SEM
• EDX
• TEM

One of the authors (Sangeeta Handuja) wishes to thank The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Govt. of India for providing the financial support.