Investigation of the Solution Electrical Conductivity Effect upon the Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes by Arc Discharge Method

Some techniques have been developed to produce carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in sizeable quantities, including arc discharge, laser ablation and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Arc discharge in liquid environment is a new, simple and cheap method of synthesizing CNTs. CNTs in this study were fabricated by arc discharge in liquid. The present work was undertaken to study the effect of electrical conductivity of liquid on CNTs production and was fabricated using arc discharge between two graphite electrodes submerged in different aqueous solutions of NaCl, KCl and LiCl. For comparative study, CNTs were synthesized under different electrical conductivity conditions and the results were analyzed, compared and discussed. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy were employed to study the morphology of these carbon nanostructures. Based on LiCl 0.25 N, high-crystalline and a longed multi MWCNTs, SWCNTs were synthesized by using this technique.