Effect of Morphology on Field Emission Properties of Carbon Nanocoils and Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Helical carbon nanocoils exhibit excellent field emission properties, and are thus expected to be applicable as electron emitters in field emission displays. We have synthesized carbon nanocoils with different diameters by the catalytic thermal decomposition of acetylene using iron-indium-tin-oxide catalysts. It is found that the turn-on voltage is decreased by decreasing the average diameter of the grown carbon nanocoils. The turn-on voltage of as low as 30 V at the electrode gap of 130 mm was achieved when the coil diameter is decreased to 60 nm. The calculation for the concentration of the electric field on the coil surface has been performed using a finite element method. It is found that the strength of the electric field around the top ring of a coil is increased with the decrease of the tubular diameter of the coil and has a similar value as that at the tip of a carbon nanotube, suggesting that the efficiency of the field emission from nanocoils would be higher than that from nanotubes. These results can explain the high stability of field emission from carbon nanocoils.

Electromechanical vibration of carbon nanocoils

“…The charges are mainly concentrated at the tip when the CNC cantilever is charged as an electrode in a capacitor structure [33]. As the driving force for vibration, the electrical force originating from charges acts as a positive load.…”

High-Yield Synthesis of Helical Carbon Nanofibers Using Iron Oxide Fine Powder as a Catalyst

“…They are also used in nanosprings [26][27][28][29][30], electrode materials in fuel cells [31][32][33][34], field emitters [35][36][37], magnetic sensors [38,39], and various industrial fields [40][41][42].…”

Fracture and defect evolution in carbon nanocoil – A molecular dynamics study

“…As one of the materials with spiral structures, carbon nanocoil (CNC) has found wide applications in numerous engineering fields, for example, super strong fibers, mass sensor, field emission device, nano-mechanical and electromagnetic devices, because of its excellent mechanical and electric properties arising from its distinctive spiral structural form [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”