N-doped carbon nanofibers from pyrolysis of free-base phthalocyanine

Heating free-base phthalocyanine (H2Pc) at around 450 degrees C under static vacuum results in the formation of a nonvolatile carbonaceous material through oxidative pyrolysis. We used a number of instrumental techniques to characterize its morphology and chemical composition. According to electron microscopy observations, the dominating morphology is fibrous. The estimated length of individual fibers, which appear as rather homogeneous and continuous structures, is several micrometers, with diameters of roughly 200 nm. According to elemental analysis estimates, the per cent contribution of carbon remains approximately the same as in pristine H2Pc, but about 5.4 at% of nitrogen is substituted by oxygen. Spectroscopic measurements suggest that the oxygen is incorporated into nanofiber structure in the form of different functionalities containing C=O and C-OH bonds. Raman spectroscopy revealed an approximately equal contribution due to sp(3) and sp(2)-hybridized carbon atoms, which would made one to expect that the thermal stability of nanofibers must be similar to that of defect-containing nanotubes, graphene oxide and nanodiamond. Nevertheless, according to thermogravimetric curves obtained, nanofibers are at least as thermally stable as graphene and defect-free nanotubes. Density functional theory calculations were employed to suggest possible initial steps of H2Pc oxidative pyrolysis leading to the formation of nanofibers.