High-yield atmospheric-pressure CVD of highly-uniform carbon nanocoils using Co-P catalyst nanoparticles prepared by electroless plating

A simple, fast and low-cost atmospheric-pressure chemical vapor deposition technique is developed to synthesize high-yield carbon nanocoils (CNCs) using amorphous Co-P alloy as catalyst and thiophene as nucleation agent. The uniform catalyst pattern with the mean particle size of 350 nm was synthesized using a simple electroless plating process. This uniformity of the Co-P nanoparticles results in a high yield, very uniform size/shape distribution and regular structure of CNCs at the optimum growth temperature of 800 degrees C. The yield of CNCs reaches similar to 76%; 70% of the CNCs have fiber diameters approximately 250 nm. The CNC coil diameters and lengths are 450-550 nm and 0.5-2 mm, respectively. The CNC nucleation and growth mechanism are also discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.