A simple, low cost microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) technique for the production of carbon nanostructures has been developed in the School‟s Materials Science Laboratory. The technique utilises a conventional microwave oven as an energy source, various hydrocarbons as a carbon source, a metallic aerial as a catalyst and hydrogen to support the process. The input hydrocarbon and the hydrogen flow rate are independently varied to investigate their effect on the resultant nanostructures. This technique allows for the production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), onion-like nanostructures structures (ONSs) and amorphous carbon, which has been verified via transmission and scanning electron microscopy. A change in input parameters results in the controllable yield of CNTs versus ONSs. The formation of amorphous carbon is reduced by controlling the hydrogen flow rate. In further experiments, the thermal conductivity of the ONSs is investigated using the "Lee‟s Disk" method. It was observed that bulk ONS specimens exhibit a thermal conductivity above that of amorphous carbon powder. Insufficient quantities of CNTs were grown using this method to facilitate a comparable thermal conductivity investigation.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.