Influence of the crystallinity of the iron catalysts on the formation of carbon nanotubes

In this work, carbon nanotubes and minor amount of Fe/C core–shell structure nanoparticles were simultaneously synthesized by catalytic pyrolysis of ferrocene. Through high-resolution TEM observation and ED characterization, the results showed that the well-crystallized iron nanoparticles could catalyze the formation of carbon nanotubes, while the amorphous iron nanoparticles could not catalyze the formation of carbon nanotubes but form the Fe/C core–shell nanoparticles.

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► The well-crystallized and amorphous iron particles as catalysts.
► Well-crystallized iron particles as catalysts can form carbon nanotubes.
► Amorphous iron particles as cores can form Fe/C core–shell nanoparticles.