Journal
CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS
Volume 23, Issue 24, Pages 5379-5387Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/cm202315j
Keywords
carbon nanotubes; carbon nanofibers; PECVD growth; Iron catalyst; alpha-Fe; Fe3C; growth mechanism; TEM
Funding
- WCU through NRF of Korea
- MEST [R31-2008-000-10029-0]
- Region Ile-de-France
- ANR
- CNRS
- CEA
- MESR
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Iron is a widely used catalyst for the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or carbon nanofibers (CNFs) by catalytic chemical vapor deposition. However, both Fe and Fe-C compounds (generally, Fe3C) have been found to catalyze the growth of CNTs/CNFs, and a comparison study of their respective catalytic activities is still missing. Furthermore, the control of the crystal structure of iron-based catalysts, that is alpha-Fe or Fe3C, is still a challenge, which not only obscures our understanding of the growth mechanisms of CNTs/CNFs, but also complicates subsequent procedures, such as the removal of catalysts for better industrial applications. Here, we show a partial control of the phase of iron catalysts (alpha-Fe or FeC), obtained by varying the growth temperatures during the synthesis of carbon-based nanofibers/nanotubes in a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition reactor. We also show that the structure of CNFs originating from Fe3C is bamboo-type, while that of CNFs originating from Fe is not. Moreover, we directly compare the growth rates of carbon-based nanofibers/nanotubes during the same experiments and find that CNFs/CNTs grown by alpha-Fe nanoparticles are longer than CNFs grown from Fe3C nanoparticles. The influence of the type of catalyst on the growth of CNFs is analyzed and the corresponding possible growth mechanisms, based on the different phases of the catalysts, are discussed.
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