GROWTH MECHANISM OF COILED CARBON WHISKERS

Abstract

The growth mechanism of coiled carbon whiskers was thoroughly studied. The carbon whiskers were prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at high temperature (500-650 °C) using acetylene as the carbon source and metal powder as the catalyst. The results show that the shape, diameter and pitch of the coiled carbon whiskers are dependent on the particle size of metal powder: when the sizes of metal powder particles are in the range of tens of microns, carbon whiskers have twisted string shape with diameters between 130 nm and 180 nm and a pitch of 100 to 350 nm. When the diameters of metal powder particles are about several hundred microns, tube shape of carbon whiskers with diameters between 280nm and 350 nm and a pitch between 150nm and 180nm are obtained. The range of temperature for the preparation of coiled carbon whiskers by the CVD method follows Quasi-VLS theory.