Journal
CARBON
Volume 50, Issue 10, Pages 3376-3398Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2012.03.024
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Funding
- University of the Witwatersrand
- DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials
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In recent years extensive studies on carbon nanotubes has led to the synthesis and characterization of other carbons with a wide range of morphologies. Current understanding is that the carbon reagents decompose in the presence of a catalyst to give C atoms that then combine or extrude into carbon nanotubes, fibers (or spheres). This mechanism does not indicate how the structure of the carbon source can impact on a material's growth, in particular at low temperatures. In this paper we show that evidence exists to indicate that the structure of hydrocarbons (and other carbon reagents) has the ability to influence the carbon growth process. This can be achieved by catalyst-reactant effects (and subsequent catalyst reconstruction) that are influenced by both the production of carbon fragments and radicals produced in the gas phase or by direct reaction of the carbon source with the metal particle. A modification of the current Baker carbon growth model, to show the metal-catalyst interactions, that takes this information into account (particularly at temperatures lower than 500 degrees C) is proposed. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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