Effects of Plasma Treatment on Carbon Nanowalls Grown by Microwave Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition.

In this study, the effects of post-plasma treatment on synthesized carbon nanowalls (CNWs) grown with a microwave were investigated. CNWs were synthesized by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), employing a mixture of CH4 and H2 gases. The plasma treatment was done in different plasma environments (O2 and H2) but under the same condition of synthesized CNWs. Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were used to analyze the effects of the post-plasma treatment on the synthesized CNWs. After the H2 post-plasma treatment, no significant changes in the appearance and characteristics of the CNWs were observed. After the O2 post-plasma treatment, on the other hand, the CNWs were etched at a rate of 18.05 nm/sec. The Raman analysis confirmed, however, that the structural changes in the CNWs caused by the O2 post-plasma treatment were insignificant.