Vertically oriented nickel nanorod/carbon nanofiber core/shell structures synthesized by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Zanbing He (1) , Chang Seok Lee (1) , Jean Luc Maurice (1) , Didier Pribat (2) , Paul Haghi-Ashtiani (3) , Costel Sorin Cojocaru (1)

1 NanoMaDe
2 Department of Energy Science
3 MSSMat - Laboratoire de mécanique des sols, structures et matériaux

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, without a nickel-containing gaseous precur- sor, was used to synthesize continuous nickel (Ni) nanorods inside the hollow cavity of car- bon nanofibers (CNFs), thus forming vertically aligned Ni/CNF core/shell structures. Scanning and transmission electron microscopic images indicate that the elongated Ni nanorods originate from the catalyst particles at the tips of the CNFs and that their forma- tion is due to the effect of extrusion induced by the compressive force of the graphene lay- ers during growth. Different from previous work, each vertically-aligned core/shell structure reported is totally isolated from its neighbors. Continuous Ni nanorods are found to separate into smaller ones with increasing growth time, which was ascribed to (i) the limited amount of Ni available in the tip of the CNF, (ii) the polycrystalline nature of the Ni nanorods and (iii) the combined effects of the compressive stresses on the side of the Ni nanorods and of the tensile stress along their axis.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]

Zanbing He, Chang Seok Lee, Jean Luc Maurice, Didier Pribat, Paul Haghi-Ashtiani, et al.. Vertically oriented nickel nanorod/carbon nanofiber core/shell structures synthesized by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Carbon, 2011, 49 (14), pp.4710-4718. ⟨10.1016/j.carbon.2011.06.075⟩. ⟨hal-00793979⟩