Determining the Effects of Precursor Geometry and Chemistry on Cnt Growth in a Cvd Process

Introduction Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) consisting of graphene sheets wrapped in concentric tubes have been explored for a number of applications. An established method of producing these CNTs is through a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process where xylene is decomposed and used as a carbon source. The xylene used is a mixture of three isomers: ortho-, meta-, and para-xylene. A previous study reported growing bulk MWCNT sponges capable of significant recoverable deformation using 1,2-dichlorobenzene as a precursor. It was suggested that these sponges were formed due to the high degree of asymmetry of the precursor. This investigation sought to determine whether the degree of asymmetry has such an influence, or if the high electronegativity of the chlorine groups affected the bond breaking and led to the formation of sponges.