OVERVIEW OF CARBON NANOMATERIALS AND

THEIR APPLICATIONS

Dr. P.K. JAIN

Head, Center for Carbon Materials,

International Advanced Research Center for Powder

Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI),
Hyderabad – 500 005
E-mail - pkjain@arci.res.in, pkjain1966@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Carbon is an extraordinary element and of great importance to the scientist as well as for
technologist. Its unique characteristics made it versatile for many applications areas
ranging from house holds as well as major industries on one hand in high tech aerospace,
defence, nuclear energy and new energy source program on the other hand. Although the
carbon exist in the nature in the uncombined form as diamond and graphite, the principal
source of carbon are coal, petroleum and natural gas. The greater part of the world
conventional fuel resources consist of carbon compounds. All forms of plant and animal
life involves carbon compounds both as component part and in their nutrition process.
Although the carbon does not exist in the scale of abundance on and in the earth crust, the
importance of this element can scarcely be overemphasized.

Carbon nanotubes have unique mechanical and electronics properties which makes them
a prime candidate for many electronics and other engineering industries. Recently, these
carbon nanotubes were also found to be very attractive reinforcing materials for
development of high performance advanced composites. Based on these properties
many exotic applications have been predicted. Depending on process parameters single
wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNT) can be
produced. Various techniques have been developed for synthesis of Carbon nanotubes
with unique attributes. Among all the techniques, arc-discharge techniques and CVD
techniques are considered the best techniques for producing high quality carbon
nanotubes. In arc discharge technique, graphite is evaporated by generating arc between
two graphite electrodes. Deposits on cathode consist of mainly MWNT along with many
unwanted carbonaceous materials. These materials are to be separated out to get high
purity CNT’s. Various techniques exist for purification of carbon nanotubes. Composite
films was developed using MWNT and dispersing it into the polymer matrix. Different
properties were evaluated for these composite films. In CVD technique hydrocarbon gas
is cracked on the suitable substrate in the presence of metal catalyst to grow carbon
nanotubes. Various parameters affects the growth mechanism of carbon nanotubes.
Results of these evaluation discussed along with some applications of Carbon nanotubes.
Apart from some of applications of various carbon and graphite products for different
application are also discussed.