Structural Improvement of Catalytic Carbon Nanotubes During Heat-Treatment at 2800°C

The microtexture of coke is similar to crumpled sheets of papers (1). Their graphitisability depends on the size of the domains forming the pore walls. Anthracene-based chars (domains > 0.1 mm, responsible for their lamellar microtexture) are graphitisable whereas mesoporous saccharose-based carbons (domains < 10 nm) remains mesoporous and turbostratic at 3000°C (2). Carbon nanotubes (diameter < 20 nm) are a good example of ID microtexture, their aromatic layers being oriented along the tube axis. The aim of this work is to study the structural improvement of such nanotubes, in comparison with these two classical reference chars.