SYNTHESISOF CARBON NANOTUBES BY ELECTRIC ARC DISCHARGE METHOD

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes are a fascinating material having outstanding properties, which have inspired the researchers to adopt their properties for application point of view. In this study firstly carbon nanotubes have been synthesized by dc arc discharge technique. The parameters such as pressure inside the chamber, amount of the catalysts and the combination of the catalysts Ni, Co and Y were tried to optimize to get higher yield. Single walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes were obtained by the same technique on chamber deposits and cathode deposits respectively. Secondly carbon nanotubes were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition technique with toluene as the carbon source and ferrocene as catalyst source in a two zone electric furnace. Up to 7.5 gm of carbon nanotubes were synthesized per batch by the same technique with ~ 90% of purity and ~ 30% conversion from given carbon source to Carbon nanotube based material. Carbon nanotubes synthesized by both the above techniques h...