Facile growth of vertically-aligned graphene nanosheets via thermal CVD: The experimental and theoretical investigations

Owing to the distinctively morphological and structural features, vertically-aligned graphene nanosheets (VGs) possess many unique properties and hold great promise for applications in various fields. For controllable preparation and wide application of VGs, the establishing reliable growth method and profound understanding of the growth mechanism are of vital significance. Up to date, VGs are normally produced by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and it's considered that plasma is an indispensible factor for the vertical alignment of graphene sheets. Herein, for the first time, we report the facile and controllable VGs growth via a thermal CVD by precisely tuning growth parameters. Experimental observations in combination with detailed energy calculations reveal that the flow rate of carbon precursor determines the growth dynamics of graphene in CVD. This work offers a novel and reliable technique for VGs preparation and provides new insights into the intrinsic mechanism of vertical graphene growth. Furthermore, benefiting from the ultra-high density of edge sites, thin thickness, and outstanding electrical conductivity of VGs, the as-prepared VGs exhibit excellent field-emission performance such as ultra-low turn-on electric field and threshold field down to 1.07 and 1.65 V mu m(-1), respectively. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.