Lepak-Kuc Sandra, Lekawa-Raus Agnieszka, Jakubowska Malgorzata, Koziol Krzysztof
Faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.
Centre for Advanced Materials and Technologies (CEZAMAT), Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.
Nanotechnol Sci Appl. 2025 Sep 7;18:377-386. doi: 10.2147/NSA.S518220. eCollection 2025.
The floating catalyst chemical vapour deposition (FC-CVD) method is widely used for synthesising carbon nanotubes (CNTs), typically with ferrocene as the catalyst. This study explores the use of alternative, nonferrous metallocenes to investigate their impact on carbon nanostructure formation.
Six metallocenes - ferrocene, cobaltocene, ruthenocene, vanadocene, manganocene, and magnesocene - were tested under comparable FC-CVD conditions. The resulting materials were characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS).
Ferrocene produced vertically aligned CNT carpets with high crystallinity. Cobaltocene and magnesocene also yielded CNTs, though less aligned and more defective. Ruthenocene and vanadocene resulted in disordered graphitic carbon without nanotube morphology, confirmed by the presence of broad D and G bands in Raman spectra. Notably, manganocene catalysed the formation of dendritic structures with oxidised and functionalised surfaces, exhibiting unique morphologies distinct from conventional CNTs.
These results highlight the ability of nonferrous metallocenes to direct the growth of unconventional carbon nanostructures. The findings suggest new possibilities for tailoring nanocarbon morphology through catalyst selection, particularly for applications requiring high surface area or chemical functionality.
浮动催化剂化学气相沉积（FC-CVD）方法被广泛用于合成碳纳米管（CNT），通常以二茂铁作为催化剂。本研究探索使用替代的有色金属茂来研究它们对碳纳米结构形成的影响。
在可比的FC-CVD条件下测试了六种金属茂——二茂铁、二茂钴、二茂钌、二茂钒、二茂锰和二茂镁。使用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、拉曼光谱和能量色散X射线光谱（EDS）对所得材料进行表征。
二茂铁产生了具有高结晶度的垂直排列的碳纳米管毡。二茂钴和二茂镁也生成了碳纳米管，尽管排列较差且缺陷较多。二茂钌和二茂钒导致了无序的石墨碳，没有纳米管形态，拉曼光谱中宽的D带和G带的存在证实了这一点。值得注意的是，二茂锰催化形成了具有氧化和功能化表面的树枝状结构，呈现出与传统碳纳米管不同的独特形态。
这些结果突出了有色金属茂引导非常规碳纳米结构生长的能力。这些发现为通过催化剂选择定制纳米碳形态提出了新的可能性，特别是对于需要高表面积或化学功能的应用。
