Carbon microtubes produced from coconut oil

The synthesis of a new class of carbon with tubular morphologies is reported. Carbon microtubes (CMTs), having a high aspect ratio were prepared from a natural renewable precursor (coconut oil) by chemical vapor deposition. The CMTs were synthesized in a nitrogen atmosphere at a temperature of 1 175 °C and at a flow rate of 100 mL/min using ferrocene as catalyst. The synthesized CMTs were characterized by SEM, EDX, TEM, and Raman spectroscopy. The internal diameters of the tubes are around one micron and the external diameters were in the range of 1.7 μm to 2.1 μm.