This is a review paper that reports on the current methods for deposition of vertically oriented carbon nanowalls (CNWs) on solid substrates. Thin films of CNWs are among the most promising materials for future applications in capacitors, batteries, electrochemical devices, and photovoltaics, but their application is currently limited by slow deposition rates and difficulties in providing materials of a desired structure and morphology. The review paper analyses results obtained by various groups and draws correlations between the reported experimental conditions and obtained results. Challenges in this scientific field are presented and technological problems stressed. The key scientific challenge is providing the growth rate as well as morphological and structural properties of CNWs thin films versus plasma parameters, in particular versus the fluxes of reactive plasma species onto the substrate surface. The technological challenge is upgrading of deposition techniques to large surfaces and fast deposition rates, and development of a system for deposition of CNWs in the continuous mode.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32648743
In this scientific paper, nitrogen doped carbon nanowall (CNW) films, deposited on silicon substrates, were treated in argon plasma admixed with nitrogen (Ar/N2) or oxygen (Ar/O2). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to investigate chemical composition of CNWs and to find the content of oxygen and nitrogen incorporated in CNWs. It was found that oxygen functional groups have been incorporated in various amounts with high nitrogen doping concentration. Nitrogen configuration on the surface has been modified after the treatment. The electrochemical reactivity of the CNW electrodes, before and after the treatment, was investigated by both cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The CV results indicate that the pyrrolic nitrogen can play a key role in the electrochemical transaction improvement. Such findings open the way to design nitrogen doped carbon materials with specific nitrogen configuration to improve electrochemical properties.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32173095