Synthesising copper-carbon nanotube composites through methane diffusion flame

Flame synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNT) on copper substrate is a novel approach for generating copper-carbon nanotube composites for improving thermal and electrical properties of copper material. The copper substrates were first cleaned and etched with concentrated sulphuric acid. Methane fuel was used in two different laminar flame configurations namely Normal Diffusion Flame (NDF) and Inverse Diffusion Flame (IDF). Under NDF, copper substrate melted due to high temperature blue flame shielding carbon-rich yellow flame in the structure of NDF which was further validated through numerical simu-lation. Unlike NDF, there is a clear separation between decomposed carbon-rich yellow flame from the oxidising blue flame in IDF that creates two highly differentiated temperature zones. This realises the suitable conditions for CNT synthesis on a copper substrate, generating copper-CNT composites with tubular diameters of 20 nm to 30 nm. This highlights the opportunity of using flame synthesis as a low-costs approach in fabrication of copper-CNT composites.Copyright (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the 14th AUN/SEED-Net Regional Conference on Mate-rials and 4th International Postgraduate Conference on Materials, Minerals and Polymer (RCM & MAMIP 2021).