Carbon based nanorods prepared by an exo-templating method

Diamond nanorods will be prepared and tested in a range of applications.

Carbon nanorods have a combination of excellent physical and chemical properties making them promising materials for numerous applications such as biomedical components, optical lenses, cutting tools, microelectronic devices, nano-electro-mechanical system (NEMS) devices and laser windows. Advances in the field of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) have produced high-quality carbon based materials mostly restricted to planar surfaces. In this project, high quality carbon nanorods will be prepared using the method of exo-templating.

Mesoporous oxides are high surface area silicas that have regularly arranged pores in the diameter range 2-300 nm. These silicas will be used as templates to build high quality, structured carbon nanorods by the diffusion of gaseous precursors into the mesopores of selected materials, followed by their growth into carbon nanorods via nucleated crystallisation. By building a carbon nanorod inside the mesopores of these template materials, it is expected that the resulting macrostructure will possess the same stability, high surface area, structure regularity and uniformity as the parent mesoporous material. The oxide ‘exoskeleton’ will then be removed to reveal a three-dimensionally connected carbon framework.