Abstract
We show that in a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system, the residual oxygen and/or air play a crucial role in the mechanism of the growth of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) films on Ni foil ‘enclosures’. Hexagonal-BN films grow on the Ni foil surface via the formation of an intermediate boric-oxide (BOx) phase followed by a thermal reduction of the BOx by a carbon source (either amorphous carbon powder or methane), leading to the formation of single- and bi-layer h-BN. Low energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and diffraction (LEED) were used to map the number of layers over large areas; Raman spectroscopy, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) were used to characterize the structure and physical quality of the ultra-thin h-BN film. The growth procedure reported here leads to a better understanding and control of the synthesis of ultra-thin h-BN films.
Highlights
Major advances have been made over the last decade or so in the growth of large area polycrystalline and single crystal graphene [1,2,3]
In the case of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) growth on polycrystalline Ni and Co the growth has been reported to be a process of diffusion of B-N or B and N species thorough the metal followed by segregation to form the h-BN phase [13,14,15,16, 35]
Substrates such as flat Ni foils and Ni foil enclosures were used to grow h-BN by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using borazane as the precursor
Summary
Major advances have been made over the last decade or so in the growth of large area polycrystalline and single crystal graphene [1,2,3]. We report the carbon-assisted formation of ultra-thin h-BN films on the interior surface of a nickel foil enclosure.
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