Boron mediated synthesis of multiwalled carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition

Boron mediated MWCNTs have been synthesized by the chemical vapor deposition method and the nanotubes yields and morphology has been strongly influenced by the boron content. A CVD procedure has been used for the attempted synthesis of boron-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes using BF3/MeOH as the boron-source, Fe/Ca(BO3)2/CaCO3 as catalyst and acetylene as the carbon-source. The boron-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes were characterized by TEM, Raman spectroscopy and laser ablation mass spectrometry analysis. Variation of the boron concentration was achieved by diluting the boron-source with MeOH and dilution resulted in: (i) a higher yield of carbon material, (ii) a more disordered material and (iii) a decrease in intensity in the first- and second-order Raman spectra of boron doped multi walled carbon nanotubes.