Preparation of highly crystalline nanofibers on Fe and Fe–Ni catalysts with a variety of graphene plane alignments

The present study confirmed that highly crystalline nanofibers with controlled structure may be prepared over Fe and Fe–Ni alloy catalysts. The degree of graphitization of various carbon nanofibers (CNFs) was analyzed by using C(0 0 2) peaks from the XRD profiles. The C(0 0 2) peaks of CNFs over Fe catalyst shifted to higher angle and became narrower as the preparation temperature increased from 560 to 620 °C. Tubular CNFs prepared at temperature higher than 630 °C showed lower 2θ angles compared to those of platelet fibers. CNFs prepared over Fe–Ni catalysts tended to resemble those prepared over Fe catalysts. The degree of graphitization of platelet CNFs resembled natural graphite, while d0 0 2 of the tubular CNFs showed values below the 3.39 Å reported as a theoretical minimum for a cylindrical alignment. Lc0 0 2 of platelet and tubular CNFs increased by heat treatment at 2000 and 2800 °C though d0 0 2 changed little. A transverse section of platelet and tubular CNFs had a hexagonal shape, not a round shape. The hexagonal column allows AB stacking of hexagonal planes that can give perfect hexagonal alignment.