Role of Nanocatalysts in Synthesis of Carbon Nanofiber

Catalysis plays a central role in chemical transformations and lies at the heart of countless chemical protocols, from academic research at laboratory level to the chemical industry level. Recently, nanocatalysts have begun being used because nanomaterials are more effective than conventional catalysts due to their extremely small size and very high surface area-to-volume ratio. It is a challenge to prepare nanoparticles of uniform shape and size by conventional methods. Various new preparation methods are reported that give nanoparticles with narrow size distribution. Some of the reported methods are: hydrothermal method of metal nanoparticles, microwave-irradiated method of metal nanoparticles, dendrimer-assisted method of metal nanoparticles, reverse micelle method of metal nanoparticles, co-precipitation method of metal nanoparticles, and biogenic synthesis of metal nanoparticles. Despite great advances in synthesis methods and efforts to understand the mechanism of nucleation and growth of carbon nanofibers, continuous production of these fibers has proven to be challenging.