Preparation of carbon nanorods by in situ carbonisation using TTAB in Na2SO4 system

The precursors were formed in a concentrated salt system using the mutual synergy between TTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) and sodium sulphate at 100 °C, 300 rmp. Carbon nanorods were prepared by in-situ carbonisation of precursors at elevated temperatures. The prepared carbon nanorods were characterised by SEM, Raman, XRD, FT-IR and XPS. SEM results showed that the prepared carbon nanorods had a classical rod-like structure and most of them had lengths between 500 nm and 1.2 μm and diameters around 50 nm. Raman results showed ID/IG=0.839, a low degree of graphitisation and some defects in the structure of carbon nanorods as characterised by XRD. FT-IR and XPS analyses showed a variety of functional groups on the surface of carbon nanorods. Although the structure of the prepared carbon nanorods was not very perfect, it couldn’t be ignored that the method of preparing carbon nanorods using the interaction between Na2SO4 and TTAB was feasible.