a dehghani.k - faculty of chemical engineering
m mozdianfard - faculty of chemical engineering
m jahanshahi - nanobiotechnology research centre
g.h vakili-nejad - faculty of chemical engineering

Carbon nano -particles such as fullerene , nano -onion , nano -tube and nano -horn are promising materials in a wide range of practical applications . The remarkable properties of carbon nanotubes CNTs have attracted extensive interest since they were first reported in 1993 , making them superior choices in a large varity of applications in classical chemical engineering.however full potentials of CNTs will be realized once in their costly production by various techniques , growth is optimized and controlled adequately . Arc discharge in liquid environment is a new simple and cheap method of synthesizing CNTs developed recently as it does not require vacuum equipment , reacted gases and high temperature furnace. in order to investigate factors affecting CNT production, in this work they were fabricated using arc discharge between two graphite electrodes submerged in different aqueous solutions of NaCl, KCl and LiCl. scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used to examine the morphology of the CNTs produced . following introduction of general applications of arc discharge method in solution for fabrication and characterization of the CNTs, this study suggests that electrical conductivity of aqueous solutions is an important parameter in the structure of the CNTs produced.

electrical conductivity, carbon nanotubes, arc discharge