Carbon nanotube-biomorphic composites and filter application: A Review

As interest in environmental pollution has increased, research in the field of filtration has been concentrated. While various types of filters have been developed, research on nanomaterial filtration has been limited. Since then, the development of new materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) has accelerated the study of new filters. Especially, CNTs have been among the most attractive materials ever synthesized for the development of nano-technologies. However, there are fundamental technical problems to be solved the development of new CNT composites. One of these problems is the development of a CNTs filter with excellent adsorption behavior and a filter that is capable of filtering a specific substance. In addition, it is necessary to develop a technology to increase the uniform distribution of CNTs, and to reduce the high processing cost of CNT composite production. In general, the chemical pathways for the production of CNTs include hydrocarbon gases, such as methane (CH4) and acetylene (C2H2), through metal nanoparticle catalysts. However, nano-metal particles have a strong coagulation phenomenon at high temperature by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) method. In this review, attempts were made by applying three different reaction techniques to form CNTs on biomorphic carbon materials (BCM) coated with catalyst materials to control the shape and size of CNTs. Hierarchical carbon substrates with pore size of 100 ~ 300 ㎛ were developed using carbonization reaction. Linde type A (LTA) zeolite, silicalite-1, and mesoporous SiO2 template crystals were simultaneously synthesized and coated on the BCM by an in-situ hydrothermal process to synthesize high-yield CNTs composites.