In general, well developed methods such as laser evaporation, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and arc discharge are used to prepare nanowhiskers/nanofibers.  CVD processes imply always the presence of a metallic catalyst. In the present work, apart from common nanowhiskers or nanofiber formation, carbon nanowhiskers are obtained by using neither external carbon source nor additional metal catalyst.

Thus, resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) solutions were prepared from resorcinol (C₆H₄(OH)₂) (R), formaldehyde (HCHO) (F) and sodium carbonate  (Na₂CO₃) which have been used as precursors for RF carbon gels formation. It is found that nanowhiskers are formed on the surface of the RF carbon gel after a pyrolysis treatment. The results suggest that the synthesis conditions (gelation time, addition of some additives on RF initial solution, drying process etc) are responsible for the formation of carbon nanoparticles (amount and thickness).

Also, has been performed synthesis of carbon nanowhiskers doped with Pt and Pd by using the same precursors. For Pt doped carbon nanowhiskers - Pt nanoparticles deposited on carbon nanowhiskers surface have been obtained by chemical impregnation with H₂PtCl₆ followed by reduction of the carbon nanowhiskers in powder state. For Pd doped carbon nanowhiskers a sol-gel method which implies using of Pd acetate followed by a pyrolysis treatment has been applied. In a first attempt, resulted compounds have been tested as catalysts in H₂O₂ decomposition reaction. The rate of decomposition reaction was measured. Both Pt and Pd doped carbon nanowhiskers exhibit catalytic features.

Scanning and tunneling electron microscopy characterization and X-ray diffraction measurements have been done on obtained carbon nanowhiskers.

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