Functionalization of carbon nanofibres obtained by floating catalyst method

Abstract

The excellent physicochemical and electrical properties of carbon nanofibres (CNF) combined with the possibility of being produced at industrial scale at reasonable costs have promoted the interest in their use in very diverse areas. However, there are still some drawbacks that must be solved in order to optimize their set of properties such as the presence of impurities or the imperfections in the crystalline structure. In this work, different modification treatments of CNFs produced by the floating catalyst method have been studied. Three types of modification processes have been explored that can be grouped as mechanical, thermal, and chemical functionalization processes. Mechanical processing has allowed solving the agglomeration problem related to CNFs produced by floating catalyst method and the resulting modified product ensures the secure handling of carbon nanofibres. Thermal and chemical treatments lead to purer and more crystalline products by removing catalyst impurities and amorphous carbon. Functionalization processes explored in this work open the possibility of customized posttreatment of carbon nanofibres according to the desired requirements.