Growth and Characterization of High Surface Area Titanium Carbide

Abstract

High surface area, porous titanium carbide (TiC) films have been synthesized employing physical vapor deposition of titanium at glancing angles under high vacuum within an ethylene ambient. The composition, surface area, and morphology of the TiC films were studied as a function of deposition conditions including ethylene pressure, titanium deposition angle, substrate temperature during growth, and postdeposition annealing temperature. At high or glancing deposition angles (∼80−85°) synthesis produces films composed of arrays of porous nanocolumns of TiC, while deposition at more moderate angles, less than 70°, results in continuous, reticulated films. The maximum specific surface area (840 m2/g) is obtained by growth with an incident titanium deposition angle of 65°, an ethylene pressure of 1.5 × 10−7 Torr, and a substrate growth temperature of ∼350 K. This result is in contrast to previous investigations using related physical vapor deposition techniques which have generally shown that films with the gr...