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

Carbon nanofibers and carbon nanowhiskers were synthesized by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method over transition metal based catalyst by using acetylene as the synthesis gas. The transition metals used in this study were chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper and zinc. Metal catalysts are synthesized as the metal tartrate and oxalate complex form with sodium chloride as the support material and in the oxide form. The obtained catalysts were characterized by using X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), proton H1-NMR and carbon C13-NMR, BET surface analyzer and thermal gravimetric methods in order to relate the structural effects of he catalyst on CVD process. In addition, the effects of the type of the metal, temperature and concentration of the synthesis as on CVD for production of carbon nanofiber using the same conditions were investigated.