Fabrication and electron field-emission of carbon nanofibers grown on silicon nanoporous pillar array

摘要

Random orientation carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were grown on silicon nanoporous pillar array (Si-NPA) by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method with acetylene (C_2H_2) as carbon precursor and Ni as the catalyst. The synthesized CNFs were mainly composed of amorphous carbon and disordered graphite layers with a core-shell like structure. And, the tangled CNFs and the regular silicon-pillar array formed a nanometer-micron hierarchy structure. The electron field-emission (FE) property of CNFs/Si-NPA was measured and low turn-on field, high-density and stable FE current, high enhancement factor were obtained. The outstanding FE performance of the CNFs/Si-NPA emitters was attributed to the random orientation and defects of CNFs, the undulate surface of the Si-NPA substrate.