Fast growth of carbon nanotubes on melamine sponge

Session

PSA.5 - Nanoparticles & Catalysts

Authors

Professor Wenqing Huang (1), Engineer Ying Liu (1)

Affiliations

1. Sinopec Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry

Keywords

Melamine sponge; Carbon nanotube; Surface modification

Abstract text

Introduction

Melamine sponges(MS) are well known as oil-absorbing materials, extensively studied in order to handle the environmental issues caused by oil leakage and emission of chemical reagents^[1]. And carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the most fascinating materials in the field of nanotechnology due to their outstanding mechanical, chemical and electronic properties.^[2-4] Methods for CNT-synthesis always require feed stock gases, vacuum, high temperature chamber, inert atmosphere and long process time. ^[5, 6] Herein, CNT-synthesis as well as new surface modification methods were studied using MS as carbon source and nickel acetate as catalyst.

Experiment and Result

In the present study we show that it is possible to grow CNTs within 10 s inside a microwave oven using melamine sponge as carbon source and nickel acetate as catalyst. Figure 1 shows the SEM images of the CNTs synthesized in just 10 s of microwave irradiation of melamine sponge loaded with nickel acetate in presence of the graphene aerogel. It can be seen from Figure 1a that a large number of CNTs were grown on the melamine sponge skeletons. At the top of the CNTs, the nickel catalysts were clearly observed (Figure 1b). As shown in Figure 1c-d, the diameter of CNTs prepared by microwave irradiation was about 200-300 nm.

Figure 1. SEM images of CNTs.

References

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[3] Gowtam A., Rigved E., Prashant N. K., etc. Nickel Catalyst-Assisted Vertical Growth of Dense Carbon Nanotube Forests on Bulk Copper. J. Phys. Chem. C 2011, 115, 3534 – 3538.

[4] Harris, P. J. F. Carbon Nanotubes and Related Structures; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, U.K., 1999.

[5] Pooya A., Ramin F., Emanuel M. Preparation of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube-Supported Nickel Catalysts Using Incipient Wetness Method. J. Phys. Chem. A 2010, 114, 3962–3968.

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