Low temperature synthesis of carbon nanotubes and carbon nanospheres

Abstract

Recently nanomaterial have gained a great interest due to their unique electrical and optical properties. The area of carbon materials have since been dominated by studies of carbon nanotubes. So far numerous methods have been developed for the synthesis of CNTs; in this work we have synthesized CNTs via a simple chemical route. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are successfully synthesized by heating a mixture of ferrocene and ammonium chloride at temperature as low as 250 °C. Carbon nanospheres are also observed here. Carbon spheres (CSs) of different sizes and shapes are present randomly in the sample. Field emission scanning electron microscopy is performed to examine the morphology of the sample and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) is performed to examine the composition.