Abstract
Atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJ) are widely used in industry for surface cleaning and chemical modification. In the recent past, they have gained more scientific attention especially in the processing of carbon nanomaterials. In this work, a novel power generation technique was applied to realize the stable discharge in N2 (10 vol.% H2) forming gas in ambient conditions. This APPJ was used to reduce solution-processed graphene oxide (GO) thin films and the result was compared with an established and optimized reduction process in a low–pressure capacitively coupled (CCP) radiofrequency (RF) hydrogen (H2) plasma. The reduced GO (rGO) films were investigated by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Effective deoxygenation of GO was observed after a quick 2 s treatment by AAPJ. Further deoxygenation at longer exposure times was found to proceed with the expense of GO–structure integrity. By adding acetylene gas into the same APPJ, carbon nanomaterials on various substrates were synthesized. The carbon materials were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses. Fullerene-like particles and graphitic carbon with short carbon nanotubes were detected on Si and Ag surfaces, respectively. We demonstrate that the APPJ tool has obvious potential for the versatile processing of carbon nanomaterials.
Highlights
IntroductionCrumbled graphene sheets of various sizes (up to a few hundred nanometers) with the number of layers in the range of 1–10 have been obtained
Motivated by the need for an atmospheric plasma system to be able to deposit graphene films in ambient conditions, we developed a low-power Atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJ) system
The fitted Raman spectra for the graphene oxide (GO) and various reduced GO (rGO) are presented in Figure 1 where a combination of three pseudo-Voigt and two Gaussian functions were used [43]
Summary
Crumbled graphene sheets of various sizes (up to a few hundred nanometers) with the number of layers in the range of 1–10 have been obtained This technique is attractive, some of the downsides are [32,33,34]: (i) a very high power consumption; (ii) the necessity of special auxiliary systems including a vacuum chamber with cooling; and (iii) the crumbled nature of graphene, and the need for a post-synthesis solution process to realize particular applications such as transparent conductive layers, sensors, and other functional coatings. Motivated by the need for an atmospheric plasma system to be able to deposit graphene films in ambient conditions, we developed a low-power APPJ system. The potential applications of this system are demonstrated for: (i) reduction in GO films and (ii) deposition of carbon nanomaterials on various substrates (described in Sections 3.1 and 3.2, respectively)
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