Synthesis and characterization of metal based catalysts for carbon nanofiber and nanotube production

Carbon based materials are both interesting and important materials, not only for carbon is a wonderful element that its allotropes can exist in many forms, but also by using various kinds of artificial synthesis methods its morphology and structure can be tailored and it can gain various kinds of conformations even in nanometer size. Thus, the diversity of the carbon structure offers a great flexibility to use carbon materials by tailoring their properties according to specific needs and potential applications such as; their diameter and length of the fibers, texture, mechanical strength, and the extent of agglomeration of the fibers to make strong macroscopic bodies. Carbon nanofiber production methods include electrospinning followed by thermal processing, catalytic decomposition of synthesis gases such as methane, ethylene, acetylene and ion beam irradiation. On the other hand carbon nanotube production methods are synthesizing over substrates or catalysts, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), laser ablation process and arc discharging. For the catalytic production of carbon nanofibers and nanotubes the most studied metals are iron, cobalt, nickel and copper; chromium, vanadium and molybdenum are also used mostly in the alloy from. In this study, a series of 3-d block metal based catalysts were prepared according to both previously described metal precipitation method and in the tartrate and oxalate form, and the microstructure, surface properties and thermal characteristics of the prepared catalysts were investigated. Additionally, using those metal based catalysts and acetylene as the synthesis gas, carbon nanofiber production attempts have been performed and the results between the performances of the catalysts were compared.