Dendritic carbon architectures formed by nanotube core-directed diffusion-limited aggregation of nanoparticles

A regular array of fractal patterns with macroscopic dendritic carbon architecture was prepared by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The dendritic carbon architectures have micrometre-sized stems and hyperbranches evolved by lateral growth, and they are formed by diffusion-limited aggregation of carbon-encapsulated iron nanoparticle building blocks generated from catalytic pyrolysis of toluene, which is directed by carbon nanotube cores, and followed by subsequent restructuring from surface to bulk. Incorporation of such proposed processes in Monte Carlo simulations generates dendritic architectures similar to the morphologies observed from the experiments. The findings provide direct information to the time resolved evolution of the morphology and microstructure of the dendritic carbon architecture, which mimic the nature behavior as snowflake attaching on the tree branches. Those will be important to understand the growth of vapor grown carbon fibers and carbon filamentous structures, and further possibility to control branching out of vapor grown carbon fibers.