Abstract Submitted to the NANOTUBE'02 Workshop:

Carbon nanotubes and nanofibers have acted as a vanguard among nanomaterials with a high potential of applications in various fields of technology, due to their extraordinary chemical and physical properties. One cause for limiting recent trends toward widespread practical applications of carbon nanotubes is considered to be the difficulty of large-scale production of high purity carbon nanotubes and nanofibers at reasonable cost. In this sense, a catalytic-assisted chemical vapor deposition method or pyrolysis of hydrocarbons is considered to be the answer for the large-scale production of these carbon nanomaterials, especially, using a floating reactant method. In terms of the morphology of carbon nanotubes and nanofibers, it is recognized that conventional carbon nanotubes are made up of single or multi seamless cylinders. Recently, a new type of carbon nanotubes was introduced as a novel functional nano-material. One of main features of this carbon nanotube is its stacking morphology, consisting of truncated conical graphene layers in the form of cup-stacked tube, which, in turn, exhibits a large portion of the open edges in the outer surface. These structural characteristics and also their possible low-production cost, using a floating reactant production system, may make it possible to use this novel carbon nanotube in the fabrication of absorbent materials, catalyst-supports, field emitters, gas storage components and nano-composites. Therefore, in this study, structural characterization of various types carbon nanotube and nanofibers, and also their practical applications into the Li ion battery will demonstrated and discussed in relation with the structural diversity of these characteristic carbon nanomaterials.