Production of carbon nanofibers using sodium chloride supported metal catalysts

Carbon nanofibers 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 in the metal complex form with sodium chloride as the support. Sodium chloride was preferred as a support material, since it is nontoxic and soluble in water, thus it can be easily removed without changing the structure of the nanofibers and causing any harm for the environment. In this study, a new approach of simultaneous synthesis of the support material and the catalyst was used. The obtained catalysts were characterized by using X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), proton 1H-NMR and carbon 13C-NMR, BET surface analyzer and thermal gravimetric methods. In addition, the effects of catalyst on CVD for production of carbon nanofiber using the same conditions were compared.