Carbon rods with hexa-branched structure and their formation mechanism

Abstract In this paper, hexa-branched carbon rods are synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, in which copper particles and acetylene are used as catalyst and carbon source, respectively. The most critical step is to disperse copper catalyst particles uniformly in carbon matrix, which is obtained by heat treatment of cross-linked polyacrylamide (PAM). The matrix structure effectively prevents the aggregation of catalyst particles during CVD process. Hexa-branched carbon rods have six pieces of sub-carbon rods with diameters ranging from 2 to 4 μm. The growth mechanism of hexa-branched carbon rods is discussed briefly.