Hong NN, Wang BB, Song L, Hu S, Tang G, Wu Y, Hu Y (2012) Low-cost, facile synthesis of carbon nanosheets by thermal pyrolysis of polystyrene composite. Materials Letters 66(1), 60-63. [In English]
Web link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2011.08.018
Keywords: Carbon nanosheets; Polymers; Catalytic pyrolysis; Epitaxial growth; nanotubes; polypropylene; graphene; combustion
Abstract: We present a low-cost, facile method for the bulk synthesis of carbon nanosheets (CNS) by pyrolyzing polystyrene (PS) on iron (Fe) particles in the presence of organophilic montmorillonite (OMT). Gram-scale of product can be obtained per day by using this method. Results revealed that the product was composed of large quantity of randomly agglomerated, leaf-like carbon nanosheets with a thickness between 2 and 8 nm. The obtained CNS were of good quality as revealed by thermal gravimetric analysis. The presence of OMT was beneficial for increasing the yield of CNS because it prevented the pyrolytic aromatic hydrocarbons of PS in the system from escape. The dehydrogenation of the aromatic hydrocarbons on the Fe surface led to the formation of hexagonal rings, which would be subsequently transferred into CNS through epitaxial growth. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.