Bamboo like Carbon Nanorods fabricated by Non-catalytic Approach

Since their discovery in 1990s, Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are continuously of great interest in both fundamental research and practical applications. As an important member of carbon material family, bamboo-like carbon nanotubes (BCNTs) have been explored extensively due to their unique properties resulting from their hollow compartments inside nanotubes. BCNTs are expected to exhibit excellent electrochemical performances for their high percentage of edge sites along inner wall, compared with the common straight CNTs. For there synthesis, the catalyst is usually used and left inside the final carbon nanotubes, which needs further purification before their applications.

A novel approach for non-catalytic fabrication of BCNT has been suggested by Scientist from China in their recent article in Material Letters. The preparation procedures involve synthesis of monodispersed core–shell structured polymer spheres and the pyrolysis in an argon atmosphere.

The carbon nanotubes with bamboo-like structures are formed via the pyrolysis of PMMA@PDVB core–shell structured spheres. The typical SEM image reveals the one dimensional (1D) twisted nanostructures of BCNTs, which are up to several tens of micrometers in length. The compartments inside the nanotubes are observed from representative TEM images. The wall thickness of the BCNTs is between 20 and 30 nm and the inner diameter is around 200 nm. High-resolution TEM image reveals the lattice fringes with the space of 0.357 nm, which corresponds with the (002) plane lattice parameter of graphitic carbon. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) measurements were performed to get insight into the structure of BCNTs. Also, the possible mechanism for fabrication has been proposed in the report.