The Effect of Mass Ratio of Ferrocene to Camphor as Carbon Source and Reaction Time on the Growth of Carbon Nanotubes

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI-Depok, Jawa Barat 16424, Indonesia
² Sustainable Energy Research Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI-Depok, Jawa Barat 16424, Indonesia

^* Coresponding author: wulan@che.ui.ac.id

Abstract

This research aims to identify the best reaction time and mass ratio of camphor to ferrocene as carbon source in the growth of carbon nanotube (CNT). Ferrocene is used as carbon source and catalyst with stainless steel (SS)-316 type gauze as substrate.Camphor as alternative carbon source is intended to improve the CNT synthesis results. This research has shown that benzene, toluene, and xylene dominate camphor decomposition, so the addition will produce good quality CNT and increase the yield. The variation of mass ratio of camphor to ferrocene was 3:1, 2:1, 1:2, 1:3 and the variation of reaction time was 10,20,30,40, and 60 min. The synthesis results of the CNT were characterized using FESEM-EDS while the ferrocene and camphor decomposition gas was analyzed by GC-FID. The best quality of CNT was obtained at 1:2 mass ratio with yield 37%, carbon percentage of 76.98% and diameter of 77-151 nm. Increasing the reaction time from 10 to 20 minutes will increase the yield and quality of CNTs. The yield and quality of the CNT decreased after a reaction time of 30 minutes due to the deactivation of the catalyst and the closure of the active sites by nucleation and carbon growth.