Carbon nanotubes produced by chemical vapor depositionusing natural biomass-based catalysts

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were prepared by chemical vapor deposition, using carbonized iron-rich biomass, mushrooms, seaweed, black fungus and black sesame seeds as catalysts, and methane as the carbon source. It was found that CNT arrays with narrow diameter distributions were formed on the catalysts derived from mushrooms, seaweed and black sesame seeds because they have a high carbon yield and as a result iron-based nanoparticles are well dispersed in these catalysts. The diameter distribution of the CNTs prepared using black fungus based catalyst was also narrow, but not well distributed, owing to the fact that black fungus has a low carbon yield and the iron-based nanoparticles are not well dispersed in the catalyst derived from them.