Synthesis and Characterization of Carbon Micro Balls from Graphite by the Arc Discharge Method

Abstract

During the arc discharge technique, a high direct current (DC) voltage powers have been employed by researchers for the fabrication of carbon materials, while in this reported technique, a very low DC power is used to produce carbon micro balls (CMBs). Wherein, the CMBs were synthesized with a minimum capacity of current (1.5 amperes) and voltage (15 volts), and their structural properties were investigated. The electrochemical arc discharge was performed between two graphite rods inserted in an aqueous solution of 1% acetonitrile. The prepared CMBs were characterized using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis for confirmation of their characteristic properties. The existence of spherical shape and smooth surface of the CMBs was confirmed by SEM with diameters in the range of 80µ-300 nm, and the EDX analysis exhibited the composition of CMBs with atomic mass percents of carbon (88.35%) and oxygen (11.65%). Similarly, the XRD analysis revealed the crystalline graphitic carbon nature of the CMBs with an average crystallite size calculated from the major diffraction peak using the Scherrer formula of about 40.59 nm. The FTIR analysis also showed the signs of the aromatic and oxygen functionalities present in the CMBs.

Keywords

• Arc discharge
• Carbon micro balls
• Scanning electron microscopy
• X-ray diffraction