S. B. Nie, X. Dong, C. Peng, B. X. Li, N. N. Hong and Y. Hu (2013) The growth mechanism of multi-wall carbon nanotubes produced by pyrolyzing polypropylene composite. Journal/Journal Of Polymer Research 20 5. [In English]
Web link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10965-013-0215-4
Keywords: Growth mechanism, Carbon nanotube, Polypropylene, Pyrolysis, PYROLYSIS, MORPHOLOGY, PRECURSORS
Abstract: The growth mechanism of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) produced by pyrolyzing polypropylene composite were studied. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and high resolution electron microscopy (HRTEM) were employed to demonstrate that the charred residue formed from PP/organically modified montmorillonite/nickel oxide (Ni2O3) composite contains an abundance of MWCNTs with almost homogeneous distribution of diameters. X-ray diffraction and HRTEM reveals that a real active site for the growth of MWCNTs is Ni not Ni2O3. Meanwhile, the growth mechanism described as the yarmulke mechanism is proposed based on the experimental analysis.