Growth of Carbon Nanotubes with Milling Technique Using Fe as a Catalyst.

Abstract

Growing of carbon nanotubes (CNT) with a milling technique using particles Fe as grower catalyst has been done. Fe-C nano-sized powder mixture are prepared froma mixture of micron-sized graphite and Fe powders in a variety of weight percent Fe (1% to 5% by weight Fe), and then milled for 50 hours using a High Energy Milling (HEM) facility. X-ray diffraction pattern shows the presence of C (002), C (004) and C (110) peaks and Fe peaks of (101) and (200). Carbon peaks decrease in intensity with increasing wt%Fe and tend to becoming amorphous, while Fe peaks sharply increasing. Microstructure observation by TEM showed an initial growth of CNTs with dimensions affected by Fe content. The sample, containing 2%Fe, formed CNT structure better than other samples. CNT formation was also confirmed fromthe Raman spectrum showing the presence of the G-band at 1590 cm-1 and D-band peak at 1310 cm-1 with and D-band intensity, ID higher than IG and absence of RBM-band peak at low wave numbers. This condition is a typical spectrum for a material having a Multi Wall Carbon Nanotube (MWCNT) structure. The highest ratio of ID/IG for 2% Fe sample support the analysis of CNT-dimension from Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) observation. In general, the data obtained in this study showed that Fe can serve as a catalyst for CNT growth.

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