Fullerenic particles for the growth of carbon nanowall-like flowers on multilayer graphene.

Carbon nanowalls (CNWs) are composed of stacks of planar graphene layers with open edges that grow almost vertically on a substrate. Their morphology makes them a promising material for field emission, batteries, light absorbers and enhanced detectors for electrochemical and gas sensors. However, three main challenges prevent the fast development of CNWs: the synthesis is energetically demanding, poorly transferable to suitable substrates, and the growth mechanism is not understood. Here, we present a simple method to grow carbon nanowall-like flowers on multilayer graphene through fullerenic particles using thermal CVD and copper. The hydrophobicity of the fabricated hybrid material facilitates its transfer to any substrate. Our findings can boost the understanding of the physical properties and the practical applicability of CNWs. At the same time, our work is a concrete example of the role of multilayer graphene as a platform to one-step synthesis of new transferable graphenic materials.