Amorphous-like
carbon
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has been obtained
by pyrolysis of natural gas (NG) in cold and powerful
electrical discharges at atmospheric pressure (called GlidArc).
Knife-shaped steel electrodes are put around the gas-flow axis. The gas
flow-rate is up to 2.3 m3(n)/h. The NG can be overheated. The
temperature of the exiting products is below 500°C. The NG has been
converted, mostly to H2, C2H2, and a "soot"
at very promising energetics of about 4 kWh per
1 m3(n) of H2 + 0.22 m3(n) C2H2.
GlidArc discharge
in pure methane at 1 atm.
Dr. J.N. Rouzaud et
al. from "Centre de Recherche sur la Matière Divisée", Orléans,
has recently observed by Transmission Electron Microscopy that the "soot"
is made of poorly organized carbon nanoparticles.
Beside amorphous carbons, some nanoparticles show a concentric
microtexture as for the carbon blacks classically obtained by thermal decomposition
of hydrocarbons, see below:
The sample of that
"soot" was heat-treated up to 2800°C under argon flow. No graphitization
was found. Sample is made of non-graphitized mesoporous nanoparticles embedded
in still amorphous carbon:
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