Physical properties of chemical vapour deposited nanostructured carbon thin films

A simple thermal chemical vapour deposition technique is employed for the deposition of carbon films by pyrolysing the natural precursor "turpentine oil" on to the stainless steel (SS) and FTO coated quartz substrates at higher temperatures (700-1100 degrees C). In this work, we have studied the influence of substrate and deposition temperature on the evolution of structural and morphological properties of nanostructured carbon films. The films were characterized by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), contact angle measurements, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy techniques. XRD study reveals that the films are polycrystalline exhibiting hexagonal and face-centered cubic structures on SS and FTO coated glass substrates respectively. SEM images show the porous and agglomerated surface of the films. Deposited carbon films show the hydrophobic nature. FTIR study displays C-H and O-H stretching vibration modes in the films. Raman analysis shows that, high ID/IG for FTO substrate confirms the dominance of sp(3) bonds with diamond phase and less for SS shows graphitization effect with dominant sp(2) bonds. It reveals the difference in local microstructure of carbon deposits leading to variation in contact angle and hardness, which is ascribed to difference in the packing density of carbon films, as observed also by Raman. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.