Controllable growth of nanostructured carbon from coal tar pitch by chemical vapor deposition

The direct synthesis of vapor grown carbon fibers with different diameters was achieved by the pyrolysis of coal tar pitch by chemical vapor deposition. The products were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The experimental results demonstrated that ferrocene content, reaction temperature and Ar flow rate strongly influenced the yield and nature of nanostructured carbon materials, pure carbon microbeads, with diameter distribution ranging from 450 to 650 nm, were also obtained in the absence of catalyst, uniform and straight carbon nanofibers with the outer diameter of about 115 nm were obtained and curl and thick carbon fibers with narrow diameter distribution of 300–350 nm were produced.