The Effects of Reaction Temperature on the Morphology and the Quality of the Carbon Nanotube - Silica Microparticles

Carbon nanotube has been successfully grafted on the surface of spherical silica gel via floating-catalyst chemical vapour deposition method. The growth conditions were set to be 3 hours growth time and 5 wt. % of ferrocene catalyst (dissolved in toluene) injected into the furnace at a rate of 0.04 ml/min. It was found that the reaction temperature of 760°C yields the best quality hybrid particles. Decreasing and increasing the reaction temperature resulted in the formation of product that consists of thicker tubes, higher defects as analysed by Raman, as well as least carbon formation.