Field emission from carbon nanotubes on a graphitized carbon fabric

Abstract

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have been directly grown over a flexible graphitized carbon fabric by water assisted chemical vapor deposition. Field emission properties are compared with randomly oriented multi-walled and single walled carbon nanotube field emitters obtained by spin coating on to carbon fabric. The MWCNTs and single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) used in spin coating were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the field emitters. The use of graphitized carbon fabric as substrate has brought in flexibility in the fabrication of carbon nanotube field emitters. The samples show good field emission properties with a fairly stable emission current. Analysis of field emission based on the Fowler–Nordheim theory reveals current saturation effects at high applied fields for all the samples.