| Abstract | A Radio Frequency (RF) inductively coupled plasma technique is a new and promising synthesis method of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs) at large scales, for industrial and commercial applications. With this method, a mixture of carbon black and metal catalysts is directly vaporized by a plasma jet, generated from an induction plasma torch. Subsequently, inside a reactor chamber, and under a controlled temperature gradient, carbon-metal clusters are formed and become the potential sites for the nucleation and growth of SWCNTs. In this process, the local plasma properties and the thermo-fluid field in the system affect the yield rate of SWCNTs, thus it is important to find an appropriate operating condition, which maximizes the yield rate. Numerical modeling in conjunction with experimental studies can help investigate the contribution of the thermo-fluid field and process parameters in the formation of catalyst nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes in the induction thermal plasma system. The goal of this work is to perform CFD simulations of the RF thermal plasma process in the synthesis of SWCNT in order to numerically study the thermo-flow fields inside the synthesis system. The effect of thermal conductivity of the reaction chamber's graphite liners were also investigated on the flow and the temperature fields in the system. The thermal conductivity of the graphite liners was measured at different temperatures and implemented into the CFD code. The comparison between our current simulations with our previous results indicates that the thermal conductivity profile of the graphite liners imposes variations on the flow and the temperature fields inside the reaction chamber. © 2011 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. |
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