Material Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu 31040, Taiwan
| Synthesis and field emission properties of a carbon nanofibers (CNFs) film by a simplified thermal growth were investigated in the present study. Firstly, a Ni-based thin film used as catalyst was deposited on stainless substrate by using a spin-coating method. Using toluene as carbon precursor, a high-density CNF network was grown on Ni-based film at 900 °C. It was found that the grown carbon nanofibers were strongly affected by surface density of Ni film. An increased trend of fiber density and length of carbon nanofibers with Ni amount was observed. Surface and structural analyses indicated that the single CNF with an average size of 100 nm has an imperfect graphitic layered structure. Field emission tests showed that the turn-on voltage of CNFs is at around 7 MV/m, and the thresholds voltage at 10 mA/cm2 is at 10 MV/m. Based on Fowler-Nordheim model, the work function of the CNFs was estimated in range of 0.90-3.64 eV. |
full paper (pdf, 224 Kb)