Characterization of turbostratic carbons synthesized by catalytic decomposition of acetylene

Turbostratic mesoporous carbons were synthesized by catalytic decomposition of acetylene over Cu/MgO or Cu/Al₂O₃ catalysts. The carbon samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and thermo gravimetric analyser (TGA). The decomposition of temperature was found having crucial effect on the micro structure and reactivity of carbon samples. Increase of decomposition temperature leads to the decrease of the surface area and growth of carbon crystallite volume (V_nano), which make the chemical reactivity of carbons reduced. It was found that V_nano is a useful parameter to describe the effect of the crystalline structure on the reactivity of turbostratic carbons in oxygen-carbon reaction.