A kind of carbon whiskers in new structure and morphology

Carbon whiskers with new structure and morphology were observedwhen heating the milled graphite. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution electron microscopy (HREM) show that carbon layers are almost perpendicular to the growth axes of carbon whiskers. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) indicates that there are spirals appearing on the surface of the whiskers. The structure analysis shows that the growth mechanism of carbon whiskers is related to the trace amount of ZrC in the heated samples.