Alignment of Vertically Grown Carbon Nanostructures Studied by X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy
Jeannot Mane Mane1,2, François Le Normand1, Rolant Eba Medjo3,4, Costel Sorin Cojocaru1, Ovidiu Ersen1, Antoine Senger1, Carine Laffon5, Bridinette Thiodjio Sendja2,3, César Mbane Biouele3, Germain Hubert Ben-Bolie3, Pierre Owono Ateba3, Philippe Parent5
1IPCMS, UMR 7504 CNRS, Strasbourg, France.
2Ecole Nationale Supérieure Polytechnique (National Advanced School of Engineering), Department of Mathematics and Physical Sciences, The University of Yaoundé I, Yaounde, Cameroon.
3Physics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé I, Yaounde, Cameroon.
4Physics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.
5LURE, UMR CNRS, Centre Universitaire Paris Sud, Orsay, France.
 DOI: 10.4236/msa.2014.513098   PDF   HTML   XML   2,998 Downloads   3,978 Views   Citations

Abstract

X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) on the carbon K edge of carbon nanostructures (nanotubes, nanofibers, nanowalls) is reported here. They are grown on plain SiO2 (8 nm thick)/Si(100) substrates by a Plasma and Hot Filaments-enhanced Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition (PE HF CCVD) process. The morphology and the nature of these carbon nanostructures are characterized by SEM, TEM and Raman spectroscopy. According to conditions of catalyst preparation and DC HF CCVD process, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon nanofibers (CNFs), carbon nanowalls (CNWs), carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) with different orientation of the graphene plans or shells can be prepared. From the angular dependence of the incident light and geometrical morphology of the nanostructures, wide variations of the C K-edge intensity of the transitions to the empty π* and σ* states occur. A full lineshape analysis of the XAS spectra has been carried out using a home-made software, allowing estimating the relative proportion of π* and σ* transitions. A geometrical model of the angular dependence with the incidence angle of the light and the morphology of the carbon nanostructures is derived. With normalization to the HOPG (Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite graphite) reference case, a degree of alignment can be extracted which is representative of the localized orientation of the graphitic carbon π bonds, accounting not only for the overall orientation, but also for local defects like impurities incorporation, structural defects ... This degree of alignment shows good agreement with SEM observations. Thus CNTs films display degrees of alignment around 50%, depending on the occurrence of defects in the course of the growth, whereas no special alignment can be detected with CNFs and CNPs, and a weak one (about 20%) is detected on CNWs.

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Mane, J. , Le Normand, F. , Medjo, R. , Cojocaru, C. , Ersen, O. , Senger, A. , Laffon, C. , Sendja, B. , Biouele, C. , Ben-Bolie, G. , Ateba, P. and Parent, P. (2014) Alignment of Vertically Grown Carbon Nanostructures Studied by X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy. Materials Sciences and Applications, 5, 966-983. doi: 10.4236/msa.2014.513098.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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