Synthesis of carbon nanoparticles using pyrolysis of ferrocene-naphthalene mixture

Abstract

Thermal co-pyrolysis of ferrocene and naphthalene mixture has been successfully developed to synthesize carbon nanoparticles (CNPs). The synthesized products are composed of 2 types of carbon nanoparticles namely, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon nanocapsules (CNCs). The distinctive point of this work is to use naphthalene as an additional carbon source for synthesize CNTs, which could help reduce quatity of ferrocene, resulting in lower operating cost of synthesis. In this research the effects of pyrolysis temperature, molar ratio of mixture, type of carrier gas and carrier gas flow rate on characteries of the obtained nanoparticles are comprehensively investigated. Based on experimental results, the pyrolysis temperature with average of 800-1050 ํC provides significant influence on the morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles. CNCs are preferable to form at high. On the other hand, well-aligned CNTs become predominant products at lower pyrolysis temperature because diffusion of free carbon might play a controlling role. An increase in fraction of naphthalene, which could reach to higher ratio of carbon atoms to iron catalyst atoms, could give rise to high CNTs formation. Interestingly, when Argon is employed as carrier gas it could provide crystalline products of CNCs and CNTs quantity higher than using nitrogen. This is attributable to the lower reactive characteristics of argon compared to nitrogen