Abstract
Carbon micro/nanostructures were grown by inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) at low pressure into a tubular reactor under pure methane and using substrates of SAE 304 stainless steel. The samples show diverse structures and properties depending on the position inside the quartz tube, due to the different temperatures and environmental conditions. In this experiment, the authors have obtained structures with different scales (micro and nano), depending on the growing temperature and the position inside the reactor. Carbon microstructures were obtained on the extreme parts of the tubular reactor at low temperatures. In contrast, carbon nanostructures appeared after the plasma resonator at temperatures higher than 700 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry evidenced functional groups with hydrogen and oxygen atoms except for nanostructures at 750 °C showing vertical carbon nanowalls with more than ten crystalline layers, such as it was verified by field emission SEM, TEM, and Raman shift spectroscopy. An intense photoluminescence in the visible range was revealed from the samples excited by laser (325 nm), except the nanowall samples, which exhibited a poor photoluminescence. The purpose of this work is to study the photoluminescence of carbon structures produced by ICP-CVD and to evidence the role of hydrogen and oxygen functional groups with hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The understanding of these processes provides additional criteria for designing new materials based on carbon, which is environmentally friendly, for application to luminescent devices.
Highlights
Carbon nanostructures have been intensively studied in recent years because they are still very attractive for developments in nanotechnology
The results of this work show the diversity of carbon structures obtained, with very varied PL properties that critically depend on the temperature and on other conditions such as the composition of the gas and density of species in each position
The study of the PL properties associated with the morphologies obtained in one single experiment using inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) has provided diverse results showing that the origin of PL is associated with the micro- and nanostructures containing H
Summary
Carbon nanostructures have been intensively studied in recent years because they are still very attractive for developments in nanotechnology. Since the 1990s, the application of carbon nanostructures has increased in studies conducted in physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine.. Carbon nanostructures constitute numerous sets of varied morphologies associated with the many possibilities provided by chemical vapor deposition activated by plasma at low pressure. For more than three decades, in which numerous experiments have been proposed for the synthesis of avs.scitation.org/journal/jva carbon nanostructures, a varied family of new carbon structures and morphologies associated with each method has appeared. Among various synthesized carbon nanomaterials, vertically oriented carbon nanostructures such as vertically oriented nanotubes, nanowalls, and vertically oriented nanofibers are of special interest, and the current and potential application areas (electronics, optics, mechanics, chemistry, biology, and medicine) of these materials are very wide. Micro- and nanostructured diamond, amorphous carbon (a-C) and hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H), diamondlike carbon, carbon nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes and carbon nanowires, single- and multiwall carbon nanotubes, graphene and graphene nanostructures, single layer graphene, and few layer graphene, among others, have been obtained. Among various synthesized carbon nanomaterials, vertically oriented carbon nanostructures such as vertically oriented nanotubes, nanowalls, and vertically oriented nanofibers are of special interest, and the current and potential application areas (electronics, optics, mechanics, chemistry, biology, and medicine) of these materials are very wide.
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