https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13762-019-02495-0

International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (2020) 17:1649–1656

Abstract

In the present work, the chemical vapor deposition method was employed for the preparation of highly hydrophobic and ultralight carbon spheres from cheap and available starting material and catalyst, acetylene and bentonite. This methodology was highly repeatable and could be easily scaled up for industrial purposes. In this line, the effect of the growth’s temperature on the morphology of the product was investigated. The highly uniform products were obtained at different temperatures (650–800 °C), but the most uniform spheres were obtained at 750 °C. Tunneling electron microscope images proposed the hollowed shapes for prepared spheres, and its calculated density (5.08 mg/cm3) confirmed this suggestion and proposed that this material could be considered as ultralight material or aerogel. The morphology and chemical structure of the product was also examined using field emission scanning …