Cost-Effective Synthesis of Diamond Nano-/Microstructures from Amorphous and Graphitic Carbon Materials: Implications for Nanoelectronics

The synthesis of diamonds with different microstructures is important for various applications including nanoelectronic devices where diamonds can be implemented as heat spreaders. Here we report the synthesis of functional diamond microstructures and coatings, including diamond microfibers, microspheres, tubes, and large-area thin film, using amorphous and graphitic carbon precursors by hot filament chemical vapor deposition. The characteristics of microstructures depend upon initial carbon precursors and their laser annealing pretreatments. Low-cost and abundant carbon precursors act as diamond nucleation sites and accelerate diamond growth, while laser annealing can further promote the nucleation and growth of diamond. As a result, carbon microfibers are converted to diamond microfibers, while large diamond microspheres are formed from multipulse laser-annealed carbon microfibers. Both of the diamond structures consist of 5-fold twinned microcrystallites. Highly dense and phase-pure diamond films are observed using porous carbon seed, and individual diamond tubes with porous walls are obtained by using carbon nanotube hollow fibers. The electron backscatter diffraction analysis confirms the diamond cubic lattice structure, while sharp diamond peaks (1331-1333 cm-1) in Raman spectra demonstrate the excellent diamond quality of prepared diamond microstructures.

Automated summary

Researchers have successfully synthesized functional diamond microstructures and coatings, including diamond microfibers, microspheres, tubes, and thin films, using amorphous and graphitic carbon precursors via hot filament chemical vapor deposition. The characteristics of the microstructures depend on the initial carbon precursors and laser annealing pretreatments. Low-cost and abundant carbon precursors act as nucleation sites and accelerate diamond growth, while laser annealing further promotes nucleation and growth. The prepared diamond microstructures exhibit excellent diamond quality as confirmed by electron backscatter diffraction and Raman spectroscopy.