Carbon nanotubes are long cylindrical structures of small nano-scale diameters formed only by carbon atoms. These structures can be understood as rolled sheets of graphene into a tube. The interactions between carbon atoms are mostly defined as Van der Waals forces.
If we categorize CNTs by their structure, the following division can be obtained:
- single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs)
- multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs)
The above structures differ in the arrangement of graphene cylindrical structures . SWNTs have only one single layer of graphene tubes, whereas MWNTs have many. There are three geometrical types of nanotubes: armchair, zig-zag and chiral. Between these types there is a difference of how the graphene is formed into a
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The latter is the most popular one as it has many advantages from large area deposition to low costs. What is more, it enables aligned CNTs growth at moderate temperatures. There are various configurations of CVD reactor used in the synthesis of CNTs such as horizontal, vertical or barrel. The vertical one is commonly used for large-scale CNTs production in which catalyst is fluidized with high carrier gas flow rates. The other method in CNTs growth uses a horizontal quartz reactor. It relies on the following carbon sources: gaseous hydrocarbons, e.g. methane or acetylene, or liquid ones such as alcohol, benzene or toluene. The most widely used carrier gases are argon and nitrogen. To prevent the oxidation of catalyst particles and production of various carbon impurities, in the process of CNTs catalytic synthesis hydrogen is used with the carrier gas [4]. In this method a non-uniform growth is observed as a result of the position dependent chemical reaction kinetics in the reactor. The growth rate, hybrid structure, diameter and number density of CNTs varies greatly, depending on the temperature and hydrogen ratio of the process.
On the other hand spray pyrolysis CVD enables CNTs synthesis without the presence of hydrogen and at low carrier gas flow rates. Here the growth rate and other significant features of CNTs is also highly dependent on the parameter of the reaction, i.e. temperature,
Figure 6.9. SEM micrographs showing the existence of structural pores in SC-CNCs, indicating the porous nature of (a) NC-1, (b) NC-2, and (c) NC-3.
Haber-Bosch process = synthetic production of fertilizers by combining nitrogen and hydrogen to synthesize ammonia
If the solid phase temperature is high enough (above 900 °C), the in-situ reforming will occur. In this condition, the natural gas reacts with CO2 and H2O to produce H2 and CO. The following reactions are
Balat, Mustafa. "Potential Importance of Hydrogen as a Future Solution to Environmental and Transportation Problems.” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. (2008): 4013-029. Web. 24 June 2015.
Currently, hydrogen is generated from fossil fuels by the steam reforming of methane or natural gas. At extremely high temperatures from between 700-1100℃, steam water reacts with methane in an endothermic reaction to yield syngas (synthesis gas), which is a fuel gas mixture consisting primarily of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
The removal of CO₂ may be a huge challenge and a spotlight has centered on removing CO₂ from the exhaust of fuel power plants, wherever it's gift in higher concentrations. Typically, that CO₂ is destined for carbon capture and storage (CCS), however an alternative choice is that, it’s doable to require CO₂ directly from exhaust gases and create new chemicals.
Graphene synthesis usually utilise a method called exfoliation, which is defined as taking the outermost layer of graphite. There are three major types of exfoliation: chemical, mechanical, and thermal. The paper mainly focuses on chemical and mechanical exfoliation for graphene synthesis, which are the methods with highest number of experiments done.
Adam Rondinone, an author of the study, explained to Popular Mechanics. It also only requires 1.2 volts of electricity, and yields over 60% of CO2 into Ethanol. These results were possible because the catalyst’s nanostructure was easy to change, this, according to the researchers.
In thinking of how the atoms are arranged in this ball, the scientists considered the geodesic domes designed by the architect-engineer, R. Buckminster Fuller. These domes led them to suspect a structure of interlocking hexagons and pentagons, identical to those of a soccer ball. They named this C60 allotrope of carbon buckminsterfullerene because this idea was inspired by the geodesic dome.
The oxidation of CH4 usually progresses to C02 and H20 because the intermediates are a series of highly reactive radical reactions and this makes partial oxidation of CH3 into CH3OH very hard. In addition, CH3OH oxidizes faster than CH4 and requires less energy for its oxidation. Industrial attempts to synthesize methanol from methane is usually done indirectly since the direct methods have low methanol specificity and yield. Current industrial methods for producing methanol involve making synthesis gas from methane and then catalytically converting it to methanol. Several methods are used such as steam reforming, and dry reforming. These methods require high temperature of about 800°C, the reactions are endothermic requiring lot of energy. The end-product of the reactions also requires intensive purification from impurities such as sulfur and other compounds. Finding feasible mechanisms for oxidation of methane to methanol cannot be over-emphasized because of the uses of methanol such as production of other chemicals like formaldehyde, acetic acid, for extraction of sulfur and most importantly as an alternative to fossil fuels.
It is currently used to manufacturer sporting goods and electronic components. Scientists tout graphene as the next silicon. The material is one million times thinner than paper and harder than diamonds, while conducting 200 times more electricity than silicon – a tremendous implication for the electronics industry. These advances come at a hefty price, but researchers at Caltech have discovered an improved manufacturing process for the material. Once researchers refine this process, manufacturers may also use the material for goods such as solar power and surface
Finally, 18F-FDG (4) is produced by base hydrolysis
(i) different metal oxides are reduced to metals by the reducing gases and then form HEAs as the building blocks. (ii) different metal oxides form complex multicomponent oxides, followed by in situ reduction to HEAs by the reducing gases. According to thermodynamics, it is impossible to obtain metallic aluminum and chromium in the autocombustion process because Al2O3 and Cr2O3 cannot be reduced to metals by any type of the gases formed in the combustion. Therefore, the synthesis of CoCrCuNiAl HEAs is through the second route. Recently, (Co,Cu,Mg,Ni,Zn)O high-entropy oxides (HEOs) were synthesized by pyrolyzing nitrates of the individual metals according to the report of Sarkar et al.25 Similar with HEAs, HEOs containing five or more metals in equiatomic amounts will be formed because of the high mixing entropy. Hence, the oxide phase in the XRD patterns of the combustion product with fuel–oxidant ratios less than 1:1 is likely to be (Co,Cr,Cu,Ni,Al)O HEO. In the HEOs, the metallic elements are bonded together and ordered in thermodynamics to form the structure of A–B–C–D–E–O (where A, B, C, D, and E denote the metallic elements and O represents oxygen), as shown in Figure 1f. There is always an intermediate anion separating neighboring cation lattice sites, and no single component metal oxide phases exist in the (Co,Cr,Cu,Ni,Al)O HEOs, so that the reduction of Al3+ and Cr3+ can
Various types of nanowires have been fabricated using different methods, including evaporation [16], laser ablation [17], chemical vapor deposition (CVD),
Graphene is a form of carbon which has recently been receiving a great deal of attention. Some have come to call it “the wonder material” due to its many extraordinary properties. Although isolated in 2004, graphene's properties had been calculated decades earlier. It consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. A single sheet of graphene is stronger than steel and yet remains very flexible, retaining all of its properties despite being bent and unbent multiple times. It is able to sustain extremely high electric current densities, is impermeable to all gasses, has a thermal conductivity double that of diamond and a very high electron mobility at room temperature. It is also easily chemically functionalized,