Controlling the number of walls in multi walled carbon nanotubes/alumina hybrid compound via ball milling of precipitate catalyst

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • We report that, to manipulate carbon nanotubes geometry and number of walls are by controlling the precipitate catalyst size. • Number of walls and geometry effects depend on the milling time of the precipitate catalyst. • Increasing milling of time will decrease the carbon nanotubes number of walls. • Increasing milling of time will increase the carbon nanotubes thermal conductivity. - Abstract: This paper reports the influence of milling time on the structure and properties of the precipitate catalyst of multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT)/alumina hybrid compound, produced through the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) process. For this purpose, light green precipitate consisted of aluminium, nickel(II) nitrate hexahydrate and sodium hydroxide mixture was placed in a planetary mill equipped with alumina vials using alumina balls at 300 rpm rotation speed for various milling time (5–15 h) prior to calcinations and CVD process. The compound was characterized using various techniques. Based on high-resolution transmission electron microscopy analysis, increasing the milling time up to 15 h decreased the diameter of MWCNT from 32.3 to 13.1 nm. It was noticed that the milling time had a significant effect on MWCNT wall thickness, whereby increasing the milling time from 0 to 15 h reduced the number of walls from 29 to 12. It was also interesting to note that the carbon content increased from 23.29 wt.% to 36.37 wt.% with increasing milling time