AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Monday Sessions
       Session NS-MoA

Paper NS-MoA2
Carbon Nanosheets, a Novel, Free-Standing, Two-Dimensional Carbon Nanostructure

Monday, November 13, 2006, 2:20 pm, Room 2016

Session: Nanoscale Structures and Characterization I
Presenter: B.C. Holloway, College of William & Mary
Authors: B.C. Holloway, College of William & Mary
J.J. Wang, College of William & Mary
R.A. Outlaw, College of William & Mary
X. Zhao, College of William & Mary
M. Zhu, College of William & Mary
P. Miraldo, College of William & Mary
S. Wang, College of William & Mary
K. Hou, College of William & Mary
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This presentation summarizes our work on the synthesis and characterization of a new, free-standing, 2-D carbon nanostructure, carbon nanosheets, on a variety of substrates including metals, semiconductors, and insulators by RF plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. SEM, TEM, SAED, Raman, XPS, AES, FTIR, and XRD all indicate that carbon nanosheets deposit as smooth graphite sheets which are up to 8 microns in height but are 1 nm or less in thickness. Such nanosheets consist of, at most, a few graphene layers. The nanosheets stand off the growth substrate in a manner similar to aligned nanotubes grown by chemical vapor deposition. However, in contrast to CVD nanotubes, nanosheets do not require a catalyst for growth and can be patterned after deposition using standard photolithography techniques. Results of thermodynamic modeling and parameter variations show that hydrogen etching promotes the formation of the atomically thin structures while the anisotropic dipole created in the graphene planes by the plasma sheath promotes the vertical orientation. Several applications which use the high surface area, vertical orientation, substrate flexibility and atomically sharp edges will also be outlined.