Abstract: One-dimensional carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have unique mechanical, optical and electronic properties, as well as thermal and chemical stability, which have been mainly applied in the modification of lithium ion battery electrode materials, metals, resins, plastics and rubber. Meanwhile, CNTs are suffering serious structure problem, which hinders their application prospect. Therefore, it is urgent to explore large-scale production technology for preparing high-quality CNTs.Currently, the common synthetic methods for CNTs include chemical vapor deposition (CVD), arc discharge and laser ablation, in which arc discharge is famous for preparing high graphitization degree of CNTs.The purity of CNTs produced by arc discharge can reach as high as 90%, and the degree of graphitization is better than that fabricated by CVD process. Usually, the time of a single arc experiment is between 1 min and 30 min, yielding 0.1—15 g CNTs. The output power is between 750 W and 3 000 W, and the conversion rate of the composite graphite can reach 75%. Therefore, the arc discharge is an economy, high efficiency and high conversion rate process. According to the arc-ignition medium, the arc method can be divided into vacuum arc discharge and solution arc discharge. The yield of CNTs is very low in the solution medium while the vacuum arc discharge is very mature. The vacuum arc discharge has the advantages of simple manufacturing equipment, convenient operation and high product quality.The growth mechanism of vacuumarc discharge includes solid phase, gas phase and liquid phase,the coexistence of two or three phases are also proposed, leading to great controversy. The type of power source, atmosphere and pressure, catalyst are main parameters influencing the arc discharge experiment. Up to now,the most common conditions used in the vacuumarc discharge are direct current, xenon atmosphere, and yttrium-nickel two-phase catalyst. This review offers the progress in arc discharging synthesis of CNTs. We firstly provide the arc furnace and growth mechanism of CNTs via arc discharge method. And then we focus on the parameters affecting the arc discharge process, mainly including the type of power source,atmosphere and pressure, and the catalyst. We have confidence that the arc discharge method has a bright future in the development of high quality, high graphitization degree and large-scale production of CNTs.
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