Controlling the yield and structure of carbon nanofibers grown on a nickel/activated carbon catalyst

• Published in: Carbon (New York) 2009-11, Vol.47 (13), p.3023-3033
• Main Authors: Rinaldi, Ali, Abdullah, Norly, Ali, Muataz, Furche, Andreas, Hamid, Sharifah Bee Abd, Su, Dang Sheng, Schlögl, Robert
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adsorbents; Catalysis; Chemistry; Colloidal state and disperse state; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Fullerenes and related materials; diamonds, graphite; General and physical chemistry; Materials science; Physics; Porous materials; Specific materials; Surface physical chemistry; Theory of reactions, general kinetics. Catalysis. Nomenclature, chemical documentation, computer chemistry
• ISSN: 0008-6223; 1873-3891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2009.06.056

Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were grown via the chemical vapor deposition of C 2H 4 on an activated carbon (AC)-supported Ni catalyst. The texture of the CNF/AC composites can be tuned by varying the growth temperature and by treatment in reducing atmosphere prior to C 2H 4/H 2 exposure. The Ni-catalyzed gasification of the AC support increases the microporosity of the composite and shown to be dominant throughout the composite synthesis especially during reduction, subsequent treatment in reducing atmosphere, and CNF growth at low temperatures. N 2 isotherm and scanning electron microscope were used to characterize the texture and morphology of the composites. Subsequent treatment in reducing atmosphere were shown to increase the Ni catalyst activity to grow CNFs. High resolution transmission electron microscope however did not reveal any microstructural difference for Ni catalyst with and without the subsequent reduction treatment. We propose in this paper that the carbon dissolutions during treatment of the catalyst might have an implication on the CNF growth.