Growth and characterization of carbon nanotubes over Co-Mo/MgO catalysts

Abstract

This thesis work is focused on synthesis of high quality and high yield Carbon nanotubes by methane decomposition catalytic chemical vapor deposition method on Co-Mo/MgO catalyst prepared by gel-combustion method. Catalyst contained weight %1.06 Co and weight %0.86 Mo having a molar ratio of Co:Mo:MgO;0.5:0.25:10. CNTs were grown in a quartz tube. In this study, three different growth conditions were examined. Argon, hydrogen or mixture of two gases were added to methane during growth. And for all of the three growth conditions, four different pretreatment processes were investigated. Pretreatment lasted for one hour at 850 oC. Firstly hydrogen effect was examined with 200 sccm flow rate, then argon effect was examined with again 200 sccm flow rate. And the third pretreatment included both argon and hydrogen gases flow together. For these three pretreatment conditions cooling and heating processes also took place with the same gas rates. However, the last pretreatment condition was carried out with hydrogen gas at 850 oC for just one hour, and for heating and cooling processes argon was used. The highest quality CNTs were sythesized under pure hydrogen atmosphere for both pretreatment and growth processes. Then, three different H2 flow rates were investigated; 100, 150 and 200 sccm. High hydrogen flow rate during growth was better for CNT growth in terms of quality. Growth temperature was performed as another important parameter. Four different temperatures were investigeted; 850 oC, 900 oC, 950 oC and 1000 oC. With increasing growth temperatures, structural quality increased and tangled CNTs formation decreased. It was found that 950 oC was the optimum growth tempertaure to obtain high yield of CNT. Finally, the growth time effect on CNT growth was examined for four different growth times; 10, 20, 30 and 40 minutes and the results showed that amount of CNTs increased with increasing time and CNTs became longer and graphitization was higher at longer growth times. Disorder also decreases with increasing time.