N-Graphene Nanowalls via Plasma Nitrogen Incorporation and Substitution: The Experimental Evidence
Abstract Incorporating nitrogen (N) atom in graphene is considered a key technique for tuning its electrical properties. However, this is still a great challenge, and it is unclear how to build N-graphene with desired nitrogen configurations. There is a lack of experimental evidence to explain the i...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SpringerOpen
2020-02-01
|
| Series: | Nano-Micro Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40820-020-0395-5 |
| Summary: | Abstract Incorporating nitrogen (N) atom in graphene is considered a key technique for tuning its electrical properties. However, this is still a great challenge, and it is unclear how to build N-graphene with desired nitrogen configurations. There is a lack of experimental evidence to explain the influence and mechanism of structural defects for nitrogen incorporation into graphene compared to the derived DFT theories. Herein, this gap is bridged through a systematic study of different nitrogen-containing gaseous plasma post-treatments on graphene nanowalls (CNWs) to produce N-CNWs with incorporated and substituted nitrogen. The structural and morphological analyses describe a remarkable difference in the plasma–surface interaction, nitrogen concentration and nitrogen incorporation mechanism in CNWs by using different nitrogen-containing plasma. Electrical conductivity measurements revealed that the conductivity of the N-graphene is strongly influenced by the position and concentration of C–N bonding configurations. These findings open up a new pathway for the synthesis of N-graphene using plasma post-treatment to control the concentration and configuration of incorporated nitrogen for application-specific properties. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2311-6706 2150-5551 |