experimental study on catalytic effect of iron compounds during synthesis of carbon nanostructures from coal

Carbon nanofibers (cnfs) and carbon nanorods (cnrs) are synthesized using coal particles (<44micron) as carbon source in the presence of ferrocene and fe3o4 nanoparticles (50-70nm) as catalysts in solid phase at 800°c. additionally the catalytic effect of fe2(so4)3.xh2o on the coal particles was studied. the as-synthesized samples have been characterized through scanning electron microscopy (sem), field emission scanning electron microscopy (fesem), transition electron microscopy (tem), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (edx) and x- ray diffraction (xrd). the results revealed amorphous carbon nanostructures such as: cnfs and cnrs are formed. the diameter of cnfs and cnrs are in the range of 30-40 nm and 60-80nm respectively. the effect of solid catalysts on the formation of carbon nanostructures described here.