Purification of carbon nanofibers with hydrogen peroxide

As-prepared carbon nanofibers (CNFs) contained some carbonaceous impurities of amorphous carbon and incompletely grown carbon nanofibers. Removal of those impurities using hydrogen peroxide as a reducing agent was carried out. Amorphous carbon synthesized in carbon nanofiber preparation and incompletely grown carbonaceous materials were distinctly removed in this purification process performed in hydrogen peroxide. The morphological changes of as-prepared and hydrogen peroxide treated carbon nanofibers were investigated by FE-SEM and TEM observations. After that purification, amorphous carbons were markedly removed by reduction and carbon nanofibers without carbonaceous impurities were obtained successfully. The X-ray diffraction results show that the purification method using hydrogen peroxides was very stable for carbon nanostructures.