Preparation of porous Co-Pt alloys for catalytic synthesis of carbon nanofibers

A simple and convenient procedure for the production of highly dispersed porous Co-Pt alloys to be used as catalysts for the synthesis of nanostructured carbon fibers (CNF) has been developed. The technique is based on the thermal decomposition of specially synthesized multicomponent precursors in a reducing atmosphere. A series of porous single-phase alloys Co-Pt (10-75 at% Pt) have been synthesized. The alloys containing 75 and 50 at% Pt were identified by the x-ray diffraction analysis as the intermetallics CoPt3 and CoPt, respectively. Within the region of 10-35 at% Pt, the synthesized alloys are represented by Co1-x Pt x random solid solutions with face-centered cubic lattice. The alloys obtained are characterized by a porous structure consisting of assembled fragments with a size of 50-150 nm. The obtained alloys were tested in the catalytic chemical vapor deposition of the ethylene to CNF. A significant synergistic effect between Co and Pt in the synthesis of carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) was revealed. The yield of CNF (for 30 min reaction) for catalysts containing 25-35 at% Pt was 30-38 g(CNF)/g(cat), whereas those for Co (100%) and Pt (100%) samples were as low as 5.6 and >0.1 g(CNF)/g(cat), respectively. The produced CNM composed of fibers with a segmented structure was shown to be characterized by a rather high specific surface area (200-250 m2 g-1) and structural homogeneity.