Issue 39, 2013

Growth of n-type 3C-SiC nanoneedles on carbon fabric: toward extremely flexible field emission devices

Abstract

Flexible field emission (FE) arrays have a wide range of applications in next generation low-cost, lightweight and wearable electronics, roll-up displays, and large-area circuits on curved objects, yet the growth of tapered, high-quality single-crystalline nanostructure-based emitters on flexible substrates with superior FE properties remains challenging and related work is limited. On the other hand, our recent studies have shown that silicon carbide (SiC) 1D nanostructures could meet nearly any stringent requirement for an ideal FE emitter. In this contribution, we report the growth of quasi-aligned, single-crystalline n-type doped (N-doped) 3C-SiC nanoneedles (3C-SiCNNs) on highly flexible carbon fabric via the catalyst assisted pyrolysis of polysilazane. The as-synthesized SiCNNs possess a tapered structure with tiny clear tips with sizes of several to tens of nanometers. The fabricated 3C-SiCNNs have extremely low emission turn-on fields (Eon) in the range of 0.5–1.6 V μm−1 with an average of 1.1 V μm−1, which is comparable to the lowest value ever reported for 1D nanostructure emitters that, however, are grown on rigid substrates. Specifically, our SiCNN arrays on carbon fabric are mechanically and electrically robust, and can withstand mechanical bending up to 500 times and still retain excellent FE performance with Eon of ∼1.1 V μm−1. The field-enhancement factor has been calculated to be 6.5 × 103. The superior FE properties can be attributed to the significant enhancements of the tapered unique morphology and N-doping of the SiCNNs. Calculations based on local density functional theory suggest that nitrogen dopants in the 3C-SiC nanostructure could favor a more localized impurity state near the conduction band edge, which improves the electron field emission. We strongly believe that the present work will provide a new insight into the fabrication of flexible field emission arrays with ultralow turn-on fields enhanced by both shape and doping.

Graphical abstract: Growth of n-type 3C-SiC nanoneedles on carbon fabric: toward extremely flexible field emission devices

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 Jun 2013
Accepted
15 Aug 2013
First published
15 Aug 2013

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2013,1, 6479-6486

Growth of n-type 3C-SiC nanoneedles on carbon fabric: toward extremely flexible field emission devices

X. Zhang, Y. Chen, W. Liu, W. Xue, J. Li and Z. Xie, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2013, 1, 6479 DOI: 10.1039/C3TC31189A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements