Magnetism of amorphous carbon nanofibers

Abstract

Amorphous carbon nanofibers (ACNFs) have been synthesized by a thermal chemical vapor deposition technique. The ACNFs grow as two branches perpendicular to {111} facets of a catalytic copper nanoparticle. The carbon nanofibers are composed of disordered localized nanofragments which in turn consist of several graphene layers. The ACNFs show a paramagnetic characteristics at 2, 5, and 10 K. The magnetic moments are suggested to originate from a large amount of defects in the graphene layers of the nanofragments. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.