Electronic Structure of Nitrogen- and Phosphorus-Doped Graphenes Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition Method.

Heteroatom doping is a widely used method for the modification of the electronic and chemical properties of graphene. A low-pressure chemical vapor deposition technique (CVD) is used here to grow pure, nitrogen-doped and phosphorous-doped few-layer graphene films from methane, acetonitrile and methane-phosphine mixture, respectively. The electronic structure of the films transferred onto SiO2/Si wafers by wet etching of copper substrates is studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy using a synchrotron radiation source. Annealing in an ultra-high vacuum at ca. 773 K allows for the removal of impurities formed on the surface of films during the synthesis and transfer procedure and changes the chemical state of nitrogen in nitrogen-doped graphene. Core level XPS spectra detect a low n-type doping of graphene film when nitrogen or phosphorous atoms are incorporated in the lattice. The electrical sheet resistance increases in the order: graphene < P-graphene < N-graphene. This tendency is related to the density of defects evaluated from the ratio of intensities of Raman peaks, valence band XPS and NEXAFS spectroscopy data.

Iron-filled multi-walled carbon nanotubes for terahertz applications: effects of interfacial polarization, screening and anisotropy.

Interface interactions in multicomponent nanoparticles can affect electromagnetic properties of an absorbing system. In this work, we investigate the electromagnetic response of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) filled with iron-containing nanoparticles (ICNs) in the terahertz frequency range. MWCNTs with different iron content have been synthesized by aerosol-assisted catalytic chemical vapour deposition method from toluene containing a certain quantity of ferrocene used as a catalyst. According to the x-ray diffraction analysis, encapsulated ICNs were mainly in the form of iron carbide. Thin composite films were prepared from the iron-filled MWCNTs and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) by casting and stretching methods. The composites showed an enhanced permittivity and anisotropy in the transmittance spectra when iron content increased. This behaviour was related to the mechanism based on electrical conductivity and polarization of ICNs and ICN/MWCNT interfaces. Since terahertz field penetrates inside MWCNTs, the filling of their cavities can be a way of varying the electromagnetic properties of MWCNT-containing composites.