A route towards controlling the morphology of vertical graphene nanosheets

TL;DR

This paper investigates how plasma process parameters influence the growth and morphology of vertical graphene nanosheets using PECVD, providing insights for controlled synthesis for applications like energy storage.

Contribution

It identifies key plasma parameters affecting VGN morphology and growth kinetics, offering a deeper understanding of the growth mechanism under plasma chemistry.

Findings

Significant influence of substrate temperature, microwave power, and source distance on VGN morphology.

Activation energy for VGN growth is 0.57 eV.

Evidence of vertical growth via nanographitic islands.

Abstract

Herein, an effort has given to sheds light on the effects of plasma process parameters on the growth of vertical graphene nanosheets (VGNs) by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD. The parameters include substrate temperature, microwave power and distance between plasma sources to substrate. The significant influence of these variable parameters is observed on the morphology, growth rate and crystallinity. Thus these parameters are found to be deciding factors, which determine the surface reaction and growth kinetics that governed the final structure and controlled morphology of VGNs. The activation energy of the VGNs grown by PECVD is found to be 0.57 eV. A direct evidence of vertical growth through the nanographitic island is observed from temperature dependent growth of VGNs. Such understanding on growth of VGNs is not only useful for growth mechanism under plasma chemistry but also beneficial to get controlled and desired structure for field emission and energy storage application.