Synthesis of carbon and carbon-nitrogen nanotubes using green precursor: jatropha-derived biodiesel

The jatropha-derived biodiesel, a green precursor was found to be a new and promising precursor for the synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon-nitrogen (C-N) nanotubes. The CNTs and C-N nanotubes have been synthesised by spray pyrolysis of biodiesel with ferrocene and ferrocene-acetonitrile, respectively, at elevated temperature under an argon atmosphere. The typical length and diameter of as-grown CNTs are 20 mu m and 20-50 nm, respectively. The C-N nanotubes are found in bundles with effective length of similar to 30 mu m and diameter ranging between 30 and 60 nm with bamboo-shaped morphology. The as-grown CNTs and C-N nanotubes were characterised through scanning and transmission electron microscopes, X-ray photoelectron, Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic techniques. These investigations revealed that the nanotubes synthesised by jatropha-derived biodiesel are clean from carbonaceous impurities and the bamboo compartment formations in C-N nanotubes are due to nitrogen incorporation. The nitrogen concentration in C-N nanotubes decreases with the increase in synthesis temperature.