Investigation of the Solution Electrical Conductivity Effect upon the Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes by Arc Discharge Method

Abstract

Some techniques have been developed to produce carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in sizeable quantities,including arc discharge, laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Arc discharge in liquidenvironmentis a new, simple and cheap method of synthesizing CNTs. CNTs in this study were fabricated byarc discharge in liquid. The present work was undertaken to study the effect of electrical conductivity ofliquid on CNTs production and was fabricated using arc discharge between two graphite electrodes submergedin different aqueous solutions of NaCl, KCl and LiCl. For comparative study, CNTs were synthesizedunder differentelectrical conductivity conditions and the results were analyzed, compared and discussed.The scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopywere employed to study the morphology of these carbon nanostructures. Based on LiCl 0.25 N, high-crystallineand a longed multi MWCNTs, SWCNTs were synthesized by using this technique