Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 2012, 11, 961-964 Published Online October 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jmmce) Optimization of Electrical Parameters for Production of Carbon Nanotubes Sayantan Chattopadhyay, Kalyan Kumar Singh Department of Mechanical Engineering & Mining Machinery Engineering Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad, India Email: sayantanchattopadhyay@ymail.com Received July 20, 2012; revised August 22, 2012; accepted August 30, 2012 ABSTRACT For more than two decades, there had been extensive research on the production of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and opti- mization of its manufacture for the industrial applications. It is believed that they are the strong enough but most flexi- ble materials known to mankind. They have potential to take part in new nanofabricated materials. It is known that, carbon nanotubes could behave as the ultimate one-dimensional material with remarkable mechanical properties. More- over, carbon nanotubes exhibit strong electrical and thermal conducting properties. In the process of optimizing the production in line with the industrial application, the researchers have found a new material to act as an anode i.e. coal, which is inexpensive as compared to graphite. There are various methods such as arc discharge, laser ablation, chemical vapour deposition (CVD), template-directed synthesis and the use of the growth of CNTs in the presence of catalyst particles. The production of carbon nanotubes in large quantities is possible with inexpensive coal as the starting carbon source by the arc discharge technique. It is found that a large amount of carbon nanotubes of good quality can be ob- tained in the cathode deposits in which carbon nanotubes are present in nest-like bundles. This paper primarily concen- trates on the optimising such parameters related to the mass production of the product. It has been shown through Sim- plex process that based on the cost of the SWNT obtained by the arc discharge technique, the voltage and the current should lie in the range of 30 - 42 V and 49 - 66 A respectively. Any combination above the given values will lead to a power consumption cost beyond the final product cost, in turn leading to infeasibility of the process. Keywords: Coal; Carbon Nanotubes; SWCNT; Simplex; Optimization 1. Introduction In 1985, Drexler proposed a molecular bearing consisting of two graphitic nanotubes of different diameter, which are concentrically arranged. It was a virtual operation inside a computer. This dream, however, has become more realistic by the discovery of carbon nanotubes. There had been revolutionizing researches on the pro- duction of Carbon Nanotubes from last twenty years and optimising its manufacture for the industrial applications. It has been thought that they are the strongest but most agile materials known to humankind, and thus have po- tential to take part in new nanofabricated materials as additives. It has been shown that carbon nanotubes could behave as the ultimate one-dimensional material with remarkable mechanical properties. Carbon nanotubes ex- hibit strong electrical and thermal conducting properties. Study of the past researches on the production of carbon nanotubes from coal revealed that most of the researches concentrate on producing CNT by arcing electrodes, produced separately by mixing the crushed coal with coal tar followed by molding process. However, the only process till date that has shown a positive adaptation to direct coal application is thermal plasma jet technique. With the extensive research in the production of the Carbon Nanotubes, the requirement of optimising the process parameters are realised. This paper concentrates on the optimising such parameters related to the mass production of the product. It has been found through cal- culation that the only determining parameter in the arc discharge technique is the power of the equipment, in terms of voltage and current, and it is seen that on opti- misation of these parameters, the cost of the process re- duces drastically. 2. CNT Production through Arc Discharge Technique Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been used in various fields of research due to their unique properties. There are various methods such as arc discharge, laser ablation, chemical vapour deposition (CVD), template-directed synthesis and the use of the growth of CNTs in the pre- sence of catalyst particles [1]. Special ambient gas is re- quired for the fabrication of CNTs, in order to prevent the oxidation of carbon at high temperature. Copyright © 2012 SciRes. JMMCE