Origin of Conductive Nanocrystalline Diamond Nanoneedles for Optoelectronic Applications

Nanodiamond Coating in Energy and Engineering Fields: Synthesis Methods, Characteristics, and Applications

Nanodiamonds are metastable allotropes of carbon. Based on their high hardness, chemical inertness, high thermal conductivity, and wide bandgap, nanodiamonds are widely used in energy and engineering applications in the form of coatings, such as mechanical processing, nuclear engineering, semiconductors, etc., particularly focusing on the reinforcement in mechanical performance, corrosion resistance, heat transfer, and electrical behavior. In mechanical performance, nanodiamond coatings can elevate hardness and wear resistance, improve the efficiency of mechanical components, and concomitantly reduce friction, diminish maintenance costs, particularly under high-load conditions. Concerning chemical inertness and corrosion resistance, nanodiamond coatings are gradually becoming the preferred manufacturing material or surface modification material for equipment in harsh environments. As for heat transfer, the extremely high coefficient of thermal conductivity of nanodiamond coatings makes them one of the main surface modification materials for heat exchange equipment. The increase of nucleation sites results in excellent performance of nanodiamond coatings during the boiling heat transfer stage. Additionally, concerning electrical properties, nanodiamond coatings elevate the efficiency of solar cells and fuel cells, and great performance in electrochemical and electrocatalytic is found. This article will briefly describe the application and mechanism analysis of nanodiamonds in the above-mentioned fields.

Nitrogen-Incorporated Boron-Doped Nanocrystalline Diamond Nanowires for Microplasma Illumination

The origin of nitrogen-incorporated boron-doped nanocrystalline diamond (NB-NCD) nanowires as a function of substrate temperature (T_s) in H₂/CH₄/B₂H₆/N₂ reactant gases is systematically addressed. Because of T_s, there is a drastic modification in the dimensional structure and microstructure and hence in the several properties of the NB-NCD films. The NB-NCD films grown at low T_s (400 °C) contain faceted diamond grains. The morphology changes to nanosized diamond grains for NB-NCD films grown at 550 °C (or 700 °C). Interestingly, the NB-NCD films grown at 850 °C possess one-dimensional nanowire-like morphological grains. These nanowire-like NB-NCD films possess the co-existence of the sp³-diamond phase and the sp²-graphitic phase, where diamond nanowires are surrounded by sp²-graphitic phases at grain boundaries. The optical emission spectroscopy studies stated that the CN, BH, and C₂ species in the plasma are the main factors for the origin of nanowire-like conducting diamond grains and the materialization of graphitic phases at the grain boundaries. Moreover, conductive atomic force microscopy studies reveal that the NB-NCD films grown at 850 °C show a large number of emission sites from the grains and the grain boundaries. While boron doping improved the electrical conductivity of the NCD grains, the nitrogen incorporation eased the generation of graphitic phases at the grain boundaries that afford conducting channels for the electrons, thus achieving a high electrical conductivity for the NB-NCD films grown at 850 °C. The microplasma devices using these nanowire-like NB-NCD films as cathodes display superior plasma illumination properties with a threshold field of 3300 V/μm and plasma current density of 1.04 mA/cm² with a supplied voltage of 520 V and a lifetime stability of 520 min. The outstanding plasma illumination characteristics of these conducting nanowire-like NB-NCD films make them appropriate as cathodes and pave the way for the utilization of these materials in various microplasma device applications.

Improved Field Electron Emission Properties of Phosphorus and Nitrogen Co-Doped Nanocrystalline Diamond Films

Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) field emitters have attracted significant interest for vacuum microelectronics applications. This work presents an approach to enhance the field electron emission (FEE) properties of NCD films by co-doping phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) using microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. While the methane (CH₄) and P concentrations are kept constant, the N₂ concentration is varied from 0.2% to 2% and supplemented by H₂. The composition of the gas mixture is tracked in situ by optical emission spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy are used to provide evidence of the changes in crystal morphology, surface roughness, microstructure, and crystalline quality of the different NCD samples. The FEE results display that the 2% N₂ concentration sample had the best FEE properties, viz. the lowest turn-on field value of 14.3 V/µm and the highest current value of 2.7 µA at an applied field of 73.0 V/µm. Conductive AFM studies reveal that the 2% N₂ concentration NCD sample showed more emission sites, both from the diamond grains and the grain boundaries surrounding them. While phosphorus doping increased the electrical conductivity of the diamond grains, the incorporation of N₂ during growth facilitated the formation of nano-graphitic grain boundary phases that provide conducting pathways for the electrons, thereby improving the FEE properties for the 2% N₂ concentrated NCD films.

In Situ Construction of Hierarchical Diamond Supported on Carbon Nanowalls/Diamond for Enhanced Electron Field Emission

The integration of sp²-/sp³-bonded carbon has aroused increasing attention on attaining a great electron field emission (EFE) performance. Herein, a novel hierarchical diamond@carbon nanowalls/diamond (D@C/D) architecture is facilely prepared through the growth of the hybrid carbon nanowalls/diamond (C/D) film followed by the in situ hydrogen plasma treatment using microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition. The hierarchical D@C/D architecture is composed of thin diamond nanoplatelets sandwiched into carbon nanowalls (CNWs) as the bottom layer and the thickened nanoplatelets constituted by diamond nanograins as the upper layer. The hydrogen plasma plays an effective role in the transformation of sacrificial sp²-bonded CNWs to sp³-bonded diamond, eventually leading to the template thickening of diamond nanoplatelets in the upper layer. Impressively, the D@C/D-90 film demonstrates much better EFE behaviors of low turn-on potential (E_o = 4.3 V μm^-1), high current density (J_e@8 V μm^-1 = 20.81 mA cm^-1), and superior long-term stability, in comparison with the pristine C/D film (E_o = 6 V μm^-1, J_e@8 V μm^-1 = 0.33 mA cm^-1). The enhanced EFE performance of the hierarchical D@C/D film is ascribed to the well-established graphite pathway for electrons transported from the bottom to the top and the increased diamond emitting sites with negative electron-affinity and robust nature at the top. This work will promote the development of the high-performance cathode EFE material based on hybrid sp²/sp³-bonded carbon, and the method proposed here also provides an effective strategy to construct a diamond nanostructure for various applications.