The development of inexpensive and environmentally friendly graphene-like carbon is critical for its integration into industrial products. This work highlights the production of graphene-like carbon structures from calcium hydroxide. The chemical vapor deposition conditions to grow graphitic carbon on a calcium hydroxide catalyst are reported. Acetylene, steam, and calcium hydroxide are used to grow a crumpled carbon morphology. The crumpled carbon resulted in a high surface area of 1276 m²/g and high electrical conductivity (>10⁵ S/m). Additionally, the significance and origin of the C 1s X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) π–π* plasmon loss peak as it is related to high electrical conductivity is reported. A unique mechanism for the catalytic process involving calcium acetylide is proposed. Several deposition times, steam concentration, and catalyst morphology were tested to synthesize a variety of carbon morphologies from calcium-based materials. Crumpled carbon, hollow nanospheres, bamboo-like carbon nanotubes, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and graphene fiber morphologies were all formed using calcium-based catalysts. Multiple reaction conditions, a scaled reaction (300 g), and catalyst recyclability were investigated. Calcium-based materials were then used as catalysts for the growth of other graphene-like carbons.

The biological response of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) is related to their physicochemical properties and a thorough MWNT characterization should accompany an assessment of their biological activity, including their potential toxicity. Beyond characterizing the physicochemical properties of MWNTs from different sources or manufacturers, it is also important to characterize different production lots of the same MWNT product from the same vendor (i.e., lot-to-lot batch consistency). Herein, we present a comprehensive physicochemical characterization of two lots of commercial pristine MWNTs (pMWNTs) and carboxylated MWNTs (cMWNTs) used to study the response of mammalian macrophages to MWNTs. There were many similarities between the physicochemical properties of the two lots of cMWNTs and neither significantly diminished the 24-h proliferation of RAW 264.7 macrophages up to the highest concentration tested (200 μg cMWNTs/mL). Conversely, several physicochemical properties of the two lots of pMWNTs were different; notably, the newer lot of pMWNTs displayed less oxidative stability, a higher defect density, and a smaller amount of surface oxygen species relative to the original lot. Furthermore, a 72-h half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC-50) of ~90 µg pMWNTs/mL was determined for RAW 264.7 cells with the new lot of pMWNTs. These results demonstrate that subtle physicochemical differences can lead to significantly dissimilar cellular responses, and that production-lot consistency must be considered when assessing the toxicity of MWNTs.