Examining Carbon Nanofibers: Properties, growth, and applications

One-dimensional carbon nanostructures have been known and fabricated for more than a hundred years and were originally referred to as "filamentous carbon," "carbon filaments," or "carbon whiskers." However, it was only during the 1990s and 2000s with the demonstration of carbon nanotubes (CNTs)and the introduction of catalytic plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) that one-dimensional carbon nanostructures emerged as a promising solution for a large variety of applications. In this article, carbon nanofibers (CNFs), a particular type of one-dimensional carbon with unique properties, are described, their growth is discussed, and their main applications are presented.