Engineering carbon nanostructures : development of novel aerogel-nanotube composites and optimization techniques for nanotube growth

Carbon aerogels offer several unique advantages which make them ideal for evaluating a metal's ability to catalyze nanotube growth, including in situ carbothermic reduction of oxidized nanoparticles to their catalytic metallic phase as they form and production of a bulk quantity of nanoparticles which can be easily characterized. In this work, metal-doped carbon aerogels of seven transition metals were synthesized, characterized, and evaluated for their ability to catalyze growth of carbon nanotubes by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD). It was found that carbon aerogels doped with Fe, Rh, Re, Au, and Nb all catalyzed the formation of nanotubes in moderate to high yields, resulting in a direct growth of nanotubes on the exterior surfaces of aerogel monoliths. Ta was found to grow nanotubes only after thorough reduction of its oxides. Growth with W was inconclusive. CVD growth of nanotubes throughout the interior porosity of metal-doped carbon aerogels was also achieved by templating a network of interconnected macropores into the monoliths. Surface-based nanoparticles composed of rhenium, gold, and varying combinations of gold and rhenium were investigated for their ability to catalyze carbon nanotube growth.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Steiner, Stephen Alan, III

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mildred S. Dresselhaus and Jing Kong.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36216

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36216