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Results of a study on internal stress, hardness, and structure of nitrogen-doped amorphous hydrogenated hard carbon films deposited by rf glow discharge from methane-nitrogen mixtures onto silicon substrate are presented. Films obtained for different N2 partial pressures (bias voltage Vb=−370 V and total pressure P=8 Pa) were characterized by infrared spectroscopy, Raman scattering, and nuclear techniques. The elemental composition, density, and structure are correlated with Vickers hardness and internal stress values, obtained from the substrate bending method. It has been observed that internal stress considerably decreases with increasing nitrogen content, in contrast to hardness, structure, and hydrogen concentration, which remain unchanged.

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Thin vertically aligned N-doped nanotubes with narrow layered nanotube diameter distribution and a defined doping level have been synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. Multilayered catalysts and a pure acetonitrile C/N feedstock have been employed. The observed nitrogen content was up to 6% with a predominant sp2 bonding configuration in relation to other nitrogen incorporated forms. Depending on the process parameters, we were able to tune the nitrogen content and the formation ratio of small nanotubes to bamboo nanotubes. The use of multilayer catalyst allows a large temperature window in which substitutionally doped structures form in comparison to other catalysts.

We have synthesized boron-doped single wall carbon nanotubes in a high vacuum chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system using a new boron precursor. Transmission electron microscopy was used in order to confirm the presence of single wall carbon nanotubes and field emission scanning electron microscopy to allow a qualitative characterization of the produced tubes. To estimate the doping level, we compared the Raman spectra with pure single wall carbon nanotubes and we found an upshifted G band as an evidence of doping. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis and ab initio electronic structure calculations reveals the presence of substitutional boron atoms incorporated on the tubes. We have also developed a simple method to determine quantitatively in which temperature range the carbon nanotubes are produced more efficiently by high vacuum CVD.

Single and multiwalled nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes were grown by chemical vapor deposition varying the feedstock composition between pure acetonitrile and ethanol/acetonitrile mixtures. The advantage of using CN sources that develop close vapor pressure values has been used in order to elucidate the effects of the reaction atmosphere in the synthesis of N-doped nanotubes. Our findings show that the morphology of the nanotube material depends strongly on the composition of the reaction atmosphere. When carrying out the experiments in an atmosphere solely determined by the vapor pressure of the feedstock components, improved homogeneity is achieved with pure CN sources or low concentration of the foreign solute. Under these conditions the temperature has strong influence in the diameter distribution.

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