Hunter Robert D, Takeguchi Masaki, Hashimoto Ayako, Ridings Kannan M, Hendy Shaun C, Zakharov Dmitri, Warnken Nils, Isaacs Jack, Fernandez-Muñoz Sol, Ramirez-Rico Joaquín, Schnepp Zoe
School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B152TT, UK.
Center for Basic Research on Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0047, Japan.
Adv Mater. 2024 Sep;36(36):e2404170. doi: 10.1002/adma.202404170. Epub 2024 Jul 16.
Carbon is a critical material for existing and emerging energy applications and there is considerable global effort in generating sustainable carbons. A particularly promising area is iron-catalyzed graphitization, which is the conversion of organic matter to graphitic carbon nanostructures by an iron catalyst. In this paper, it is reported that iron-catalyzed graphitization occurs via a new type of mechanism that is called homogeneous solid-state catalysis. Dark field in situ transmission electron microscopy is used to demonstrate that crystalline iron nanoparticles "burrow" through amorphous carbon to generate multiwalled graphitic nanotubes. The process is remarkably fast, particularly given the solid phase of the catalyst, and in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction is used to demonstrate that graphitization is complete within a few minutes.
碳是现有和新兴能源应用中的关键材料，全球在生产可持续碳方面付出了巨大努力。一个特别有前景的领域是铁催化石墨化，即通过铁催化剂将有机物转化为石墨碳纳米结构。本文报道，铁催化石墨化通过一种新型机制发生，这种机制被称为均相固态催化。利用暗场原位透射电子显微镜证明，结晶铁纳米颗粒“钻入”无定形碳中以生成多壁石墨纳米管。该过程非常迅速，尤其是考虑到催化剂的固相，并且利用原位同步加速器X射线衍射证明石墨化在几分钟内即可完成。
