Challenge for flame synthesis of single-wall carbon nanotubes

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25630358
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Reaction engineering/Process system
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: NODA Suguru 早稲田大学, 理工学術院, 教授 (50312997)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 単層カーボンナノチューブ / 火炎合成 / 連続合成 / 化学気相成長法 / ナノ粒子触媒

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are an one dimensional nanomaterial having diameter of ~1 nm and various potential applications. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using metal nanoparticles as catalyst is a major synthetic method, however SWCNTs are not practically used due to their very expensive price of ~hundreds of dollars per gram. In this research, we tried to synthesize SWCNTs using the flame synthesis method, which has realized mass production of carbon black particles and fullerenes. We proposed and developed an original flame synthesis method in which ferrocene vapor was decomposed into iron vapor instantly by a premixed flame, iron catalyst nanoparticles were nucleated by instant cooling of the iron vapor to 1000-1400 ℃ by mixing the flame gas with argon gas containing sulfur vapor, and CNTs were synthesized by mixing preheated methane gas with the iron catalyst nanoparticles. Our original method actually yielded SWCNTs.

Free Research Field

化学工学・材料プロセス