Controlled growth of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes from palm oil precursor using thermal chemical vapour deposition method and its field electron emission properties / Suriani Abu Bakar

摘要

Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNT) wereudsynthesized using palm oil as an environmentally friendlyudstarting material. The synthesis was carried out in a thermaludchemical vapour deposition reactor. Parametric studiesudwere done to determine the optimum parameters toudobtain VACNT with favourable properties at high volume.udThe parameters included seeded and floated catalystudpreparation method, stacking substrate configurationud(lower and upper growth), synthesis temperature (700-ud900°C), palm oil vaporization temperature (300-600°C),udsynthesis time (5-90 min), different carbon precursor (palmudoil and waste cooking palm oil), substrate positioningud(position 1-6), ferrocene concentration (0.67-5.33 wt%)udand different carrier gas (argon and nitrogen). The carbonudnanotubes (CNT) products were then characterizedudusing several analytical techniques which were electronudmicroscopy, energy dispersive x-ray analysis, micro-udRaman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy,udthermogravimetry analysis (TGA) and CHNS-O analysis.udPrior to the synthesis process, several analyses such asudTGA, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and FTIRudcharacterizations were done on the carbon precursorudnamely palm oil and waste cooking palm oil in order toudfacilitate the optimization procedures of VACNT. For everyudsynthesis parameter, the nanotubes growth rates wereudmeasured and the nucleation as well as termination factorudwere investigated.