Simulation of the kinetics of growth of Iron nanoparticles in the process of chemical vapor deposition of hydrocarbons with injection of ferrocene for the synthesis of carbon-nanotube arrays

A kinetic model of growth of iron nanoparticles in the process of synthesis of carbon-nanotube arrays in an injectiontype reactor of chemical vapor deposition, in which iron nanoparticles are formed as a result of the coalescence of iron atoms representing products of the thermal decomposition of a mixture of ferrocene with xylene, has been developed. It is shown that the formation of iron nanoparticles in the indicated reactor is very nonequilibrium in character. The parametric dependences of the monodisperse distributions of iron nanoparticles by their diameter, number density, and volume fraction on the flow rate of nitrogen, the temperature of the high-temperature region in the reactor, and the concentration of ferrocene in xylene have been obtained. The calculations performed have shown that the diameter of the iron nanoparticles formed increases monotonically with increase in the temperature of the chemical vapor deposition of hydrocarbons and the concentration of ferrocene in xylene and, quite the reverse, decreases monotonically with increase in the rate of the nitrogen flow. The calculated and experimental diameters of the iron nanoparticles formed at mass fractions of ferrocene in xylene of 0.5–10% were compared. The model proposed can be used for calculating the synthesis of carbon nanotubes in a chemical-vapor-deposition reactor of the injection type ©2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York.