Nickel catalyst faceting in plasma-enhanced direct current chemical vapor deposition of carbon nanofibers

Z. B. He (1) , Jean-Luc Maurice (1) , C. S. Lee (1) , C. S. Cojocaru (1) , D. Pribat (2)

1 LPICM - Laboratoire de physique des interfaces et des couches minces [Palaiseau]
2 Department of Energy Science

Vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition with Ni catalysts on the top of nanofibers. Transmission electron microscopy was used to study the morphology and crystallography of Ni catalysts, which are essential for the nucleation and growth of CNFs. A model for the faceted shape of Ni catalytic particles is proposed. It is shown that the exposed polyhedral surfaces of Ni catalytic particles for vertically aligned CNFs are composed of {111}, {110}, and {100}, a faceting that appears to be characteristic of the growth atmosphere.

Keywords: Carbon nanofibers (CNFs); PECVD; Ni catalysts; Ni faceting; TEM

Domains: Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]; Micro and nanotechnologies/Microelectronics

Z. B. He, Jean-Luc Maurice, C. S. Lee, C. S. Cojocaru, D. Pribat. Nickel catalyst faceting in plasma-enhanced direct current chemical vapor deposition of carbon nanofibers. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, 2010, 35 (1C), pp.19. ⟨hal-00525291⟩