In this study, the refinement of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) derived from chemical vapor decomposition is investigated. An ultrasonic pretreatment method is employed to disentangle carbon and metal impurities intertwined with MWCNTs. The pretreated MWCNTs exhibit a marginal decrease in C–O/C = O content from 8.9 to 8.8%, accompanied by a 2.5% increase in sp3 carbon content, indicating a mildly destructive pretreatment approach. Subsequently, selective oxidation by CO2 and hydrochloric acid etching are utilized to selectively remove carbon impurities and residual metal, respectively. The resulting yield of intact MWCNTs is approximately 85.65 wt.%, signifying a 19.91% enhancement in the one-way yield of pristine MWCNTs. Notably, the residual metal content experiences a substantial reduction from 9.95 ± 2.42 wt.% to 1.34 ± 0.06 wt.%, representing a 15.68% increase in the removal rate. These compelling findings highlight the potential of employing a mild purification process for MWCNTs production, demonstrating promising application prospects.

Carbon nanotubes are unique tubular structures of nanometer diameter and large length/diameter ratio. The nanotubes may consist of one up to tens and hundreds of concentric shells of carbons with adjacent shells separation of ~0.34 nm. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes were synthesized by arc-discharge technique. MWCNTs were formed at the cathode deposit along with other carbonaceous materials like amorphous carbon, graphite etc. However, to get the best advantage of carbon nanotubes in various advanced applications, these undesired carbonaceous materials to be removed which is a challenging task. In the present study, various techniques were tried out for purifying MWCNTs such as physical filtration, chemical treatment and thermal annealing. SEM, FTIR, TGA and BET techniques were used to characterize the CNTs at various stages. Results shows that suitable chemical treatment followed by thermal annealing under controlled flow of oxygen gives the better route for purification of carbon nanotubes.