Direct synthesis of fullerene-intercalated porous carbon nanofibers by chemical vapor deposition

• Published in: Carbon (New York) Vol. 50; no. 14; pp. 5162 - 5166
• Main Authors: Kang, Jianli, Qin, Kaiqiang, Zhang, Hu, Hirata, Akihiko, Wang, Junqiang, Chen, Mingwei, Zhao, Naiqin, Sun, Ronglu, Fujita, Takeshi, Shi, Chunsheng, Qiao, Zhijun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2012; Elsevier
• Subjects: Assembly; Carbon; Carbon fibers; Catalysis; Chemical vapor deposition; Chemistry; Colloidal state and disperse state; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Fullerenes; Fullerenes and related materials; diamonds, graphite; General and physical chemistry; Interlayers; Materials science; Metallofullerenes; Nanofibers; Physics; Porous materials; Specific materials; Theory of reactions, general kinetics. Catalysis. Nomenclature, chemical documentation, computer chemistry; Catalysts; Growth; Porous materials; Carbon nanotubes; Mesoporosity; Substrates; CVD; Carbon fibers; Synthesis; Efficiency; Transition elements; Growth mechanism; Fullerenes; Copper; Structure
• ISSN: 0008-6223; 1873-3891
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2012.06.057

Hybrid structures combining fullerenes and carbon nanotubes have exhibited exciting properties. However, the low efficiency and complex process of such assembly restrict their practical applications. We report a single-step procedure to synthesize the fullerene-intercalated (including endohedral metallofullerene (Y@Cn)) porous carbon nanofibers (pCNFs) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using a Fe/Y catalyst on a copper substrate. Fullerenes were simultaneously synthesized with the pCNF growth during the CVD process. Instead of attaching them on the surface of the CNFs, the fullerenes were inserted in the graphitic interlayer spacing, inducing micro- and mesopores in CNFs. The growth mechanism of the fullerene-intercalated pCNFs was discussed.