Growth of Carbon Nanowalls by Thermal CVD on Magnetron Sputtered Fe Thin Film

Abstract

This work concentrates on the growth of carbon nanowalls (CNWs) using the thermal chemical vapour deposition (T-CVD) technique on a glass substrate coated with Fe nanocatalyst. A combination of CH4/NH3/H2 and C2H2/NH3/H2 renders the growth of carbon nanostructures such as diamond nanocrystals, carbon nanowalls and carbon nanotubes at atmospheric pressure. Parameters affecting the growth of the CNWs such as C2H2 flow ratio, deposition time and temperature are investigated. Low temperature plasma is applied for deposition of the Fe nanocatalyst on the glass substrate. Surface morphology of the substrate is observed using the atomic force microscopy (AFM) technique, while the thicknesses were measured by means of Rutherford back scattering (RBS) technique. The samples utilized are characterized by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy techniques. One of the important conclusions in this work is that increasing the hydrocarbon gas flow rate and the reaction time caused the increasing of the crystallite size of the CNWs. It is also determined that an increase of the temperature from 600°C to 700°C causes the formation of the CNTs and the CNWs on the substrate.