Effect of Structure and Pore Size of Mesoporous Molecular Sieve Materials on the Growth of Carbon Nanotubes

Microporous and mesoporous molecular sieve materials with different channel structures and pore sizes were applied as supports for Fe-loaded catalysts to catalytically synthesize carbon nanotubes. The deposited carbon materials were characterized by the TEM technique. It was shown that the structures and pore sizes of supports greatly influence the forms and quality of the deposited carbon materials. The larger the pore size of the support used, the larger the diameter and pore size of the carbon nanotubes formed. It seems that the growth of carbon nanotubes can be orientated by the one-dimensional mesoporous structure of hexagonal mesoporous molecular sieve materials.