Growth mechanisms of carbon nanotrees with branched carbon nanofibers synthesized by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition

Zhanbing He (1) , Jean-Luc Maurice (2) , Chang Seok Lee (2) , Costel Sorin Cojocaru (2) , D. Pribat (3)

1 State Key Laboratory for Advanced Metals and Materials
2 LPICM - Laboratoire de physique des interfaces et des couches minces [Palaiseau]
3 Department of Energy Science

Y- and comb-type carbon nanotrees formed from branched carbon nanofibres grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition were studied by transmission electron microscopy. Different growth mechanisms are proposed for the two types of nanotrees based on the observed and reconstituted dynamic transformations of the catalyst particles during synthesis. However, the splitting of the larger catalyst particles is required for both kinds of nanotrees, whatever the involved growth mechanism. The carbon nanotrees are well crystallized and connections of the branches are continuous, which may be interesting for future applications in nanoelectronic devices and also composite materials.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Condensed Matter [cond-mat]; Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Zhanbing He, Jean-Luc Maurice, Chang Seok Lee, Costel Sorin Cojocaru, D. Pribat. Growth mechanisms of carbon nanotrees with branched carbon nanofibers synthesized by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition. CrystEngComm, 2014, 16, pp.2990. ⟨10.1039/C3CE42241K⟩. ⟨hal-00880722⟩