Post-treatment method for improving field emission from carbon nanotubes/nanofibers

摘要

A novel post-treatment method is reported for improving the field emission characteristics of screen-printed carbon nanotubes/nanofibers （CNTs/CNFs） cathodes.After the treatment at the temperature of 500℃ in H2 and C2H2 gas for 20 minutes,the CNTs/CNFs cathodes exhibit much better field emission properties than those untreated.The emission current increases from 0.02 mA/cm2 to 0.5 mA/cm2 at 3.9 V/μm with a decrease in the turn-on field from 2.4 V to 1.8 V ,and the emission site density is increased by almost four orders in magnitude.The enhanced field emission of treated CNTs/CNFs cathodes is attributed to the appearance of a large number of exposed CNTs/CNFs caused by heat treatment.This surface morphology is very favorable for the electron field emission.