Industrial Synthesis of Whisker Carbon Nanotubes

Since the first observation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in 1991, their synthesis techniques has been extensively investigated. The chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process have attracted much attention because of both their versatility and easy large scale production for CNTs . This paper is focused on a catalytic CVD-based method for synthesis of whisker multiwalled carbon nanotubes (WMWCNTs). The new type of carbon nanotube is similar to the whisker. The morphology of the WMWCNTs are very different from traditional carbon nanotubes prepared by traditional chemical vapor deposition process. The traditional CNTs were twisted and entangled with each other. These suggested that there are a lot of deficiencies on the CNTs and are difficult to disperse in matrix materials. The as-produced WMWCNTs are very straight and not entangled with each other. The line structure means that WMWCNTs are easily dispersed in matrix materials than traditional CNTs which are twined together. The crystallinity of WMWCNTs increased to 96% which was much higher than traditional CNTs after graphitization treatment at 2800°C.