The effect of textural properties of the γ-Al2O3:Ni catalyst template on the nanostructured carbon grown by PECVD

Nanostructured carbon was grown by a plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) technique, under similar conditions, on two mesoporous γ-Al2O3:Ni catalyst templates, compacted into pellets. The two catalysts differ by the mean pore size of the γ-alumina which was 7.5 nm and 3.7 nm and by the Ni particle dimensions of ∼4 nm and ∼2 nm, respectively. The paper proves, by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the close dependence of the resulting morphology and dimensions of the deposited carbon nanostructures, on both pore and Ni particles sizes of the γ-Al2O3:Ni catalyst templates.