Electrochemical Growth of High-Strength Carbon Nanocoils in Molten Carbonates

The reported mechanical strength of carbon nanocoils (CNCs) obtained from traditional preparation of catalytic acetylene pyrolysis is far below its theoretical value. Herein, we report a molten salt electrolysis method that employs CO32– as feedstock to grow CNCs without using metal catalyst. We meticulously mediate the alkalinity of molten carbonate to tune the electrochemical reduction of CO32– on graphite electrode to selectively grow CNCs in Li2CO3–Na2CO3–K2CO3–0.001 wt %Li2O. Graphite substrate, current density, and alkalinity of molten salt dictate the growth of CNCs. In addition, the electrolytic CNCs shows a spring constant of 1.92–39.41 N/m and a shear modulus of 21–547 GPa, which are 10–200 times that of CNCs obtained from catalyst-assisted gas-to-solid conversions. Overall, this paper opens up an electrochemical way to prepare CNCs through liquid-to-solid conversion without using catalysts and acetylene, providing new perspectives on green synthesis of 1D carbon nanomaterials with high mechanical strength.