Size- and shape-controlled synthesis of well-organised carbon nanotubes using nanoporous anodic alumina with different pore diameters

Amine Mezni; Tariq Altalhi; Nesrine Ben Saber; Ali Aldalbahi; Seifeddine Boulehmi; Abel Santos; Dusan Losic

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2016.12.035

Size- and shape-controlled synthesis of well-organised carbon nanotubes using nanoporous anodic alumina with different pore diameters

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2017 Apr 1:491:375-389. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.12.035. Epub 2016 Dec 19.

Authors

Amine Mezni¹, Tariq Altalhi², Nesrine Ben Saber³, Ali Aldalbahi⁴, Seifeddine Boulehmi⁵, Abel Santos⁶, Dusan Losic⁶

Affiliations

¹ Unite de Recherche "Synthese et Structure de Nanomateriaux" UR11ES30, Faculte des Sciences de Bizerte, Universite de Carthage, 7021 Zarzouna, Tunisia; Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: amine.mezni@gmail.com.
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia; School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
³ Unite de Recherche "Synthese et Structure de Nanomateriaux" UR11ES30, Faculte des Sciences de Bizerte, Universite de Carthage, 7021 Zarzouna, Tunisia.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Saud University, 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Northern Borders University, Arar, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.

PMID: 28063372
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.12.035

Abstract

This work aims at introducing the synthesis process of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) inside nanoporous anodic alumina (NAA) templates adopting a catalyst-free chemical vapor deposition (CVD) approach under different conditions. The nanotubular structure of NAA is prepared according to tow-step anodization process. This provides a unique platform to grow CNTs with precisely controlled geometric features. The structural features, crystalline structures and chemical composition of the resulting CNTs-NAA composites were systematically characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) as well as Raman spectroscopy. Preparing the CNTs according to this template technique allows us to obtain nanotubes which are open at one/both end(s) with a uniform diameter (10-200nm) along the pore length (1-100μm) without using any metal catalyst.

Keywords: CVD approach; Carbon nanotubes; Catalyst-free; Composites membrane; Nanoporous anodic alumina.