Carbon nanofiber
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Carbon nanofibers (CNFs), Vapor Grown Carbon Fibers (VGCFs), or Vapor Grown Carbon Nanofibers (VGCNFs) are cylindric nanostructures with graphene layers arranged as stacked cones, cups or plates. Carbon nanofibers with graphene layers wrapped into perfect cylinders are called carbon nanotubes.
Synthesis
Carbon nanofibers are produced from the catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbon gases or carbon monoxide over selected metal particles.
Applications
- Field electron emission sources
- Composite materials
- Scanning probe microscopy tips
- Carrier material for various catalysts in petrochemistry
- In vertically-aligned arrays, a platform for gene delivery. (See Impalefection)
- For electrode materials [1]
- Oil spill remediation [2]
History
One of the first technical records concerning carbon nanofibers is probably a patent dated 1889 on synthesis of filamentous carbon by Hughes and Chambers[3]. The first electron microscopy observations of carbon nanofibers were performed in the early 1950s by the Soviet scientists Radushkevich and Lukyanovich, who published a paper in the Soviet Journal of Physical Chemistry showing hollow graphitic carbon fibers that are 50 nanometers in diameter [4]. In the USA starting from the late 1980s, the deeper studies focusing on synthesis and properties of these materials for advanced applications were led by R. Terry K. Baker [5] and were motivated by the need to inhibit the growth of carbon nanofibers because of the persistent problems caused by accumulation of the material in a variety of commercial processes especially in the particular field of petroleum processing. In Japan, Morinobu Endo pioneered the synthesis of carbon nanofibers [6]. Several companies around the globe are actively involved in the commercial scale production of carbon nanofibers and new engineering applications are being developed for these materials intensively, the latest being a carbon nanofiber bearing porous composite for oil spill remediation [7].
External links
- "Vertically aligned carbon nanofibers and related structures: Controlled synthesis and directed assembly"
- "Mechanical properties of vapor grown carbon nanofibers"
References
- ^ Carbon nanofiber-polystyrene composite electrodes for electroanalytical processes Rassaei, L; Sillanpaa, M; Bonn, MJ, Marken. Electroanalysis 19 (2007) 1461-1466.
- ^ nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot.com.
- ^ T. V. Hughes and C. R. Chambers, Manufacture of Carbon Filaments, US Patent No. 405, 480, 1889.
- ^ 2L. V. Radushkevich and V. M. Lukyanovich, Zh. Fiz. Khim. 26, 88 s1952d.
- ^ 4 ftp.wtec.loyola.edu/loyola/nano/US.Review
- ^ NIMSNOW International Vol.6 No.5
- ^ 6 appft.uspto.gov
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