Low temperature and cost-effective growth of vertically aligned carbon nanofibers using spin-coated polymer-stabilized palladium nanocatalysts

We describe a fast and cost-effective process for the growth of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) at a temperature compatible with complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology, using highly stable polymer–Pd nanohybrid colloidal solutions of palladium catalyst nanoparticles (NPs). Two polymer–Pd nanohybrids, namely poly(lauryl methacrylate)-block-poly((2-acetoacetoxy)ethyl methacrylate)/Pd (LauMA(x)-b-AEMA(y)/Pd) and polyvinylpyrrolidone/Pd were prepared in organic solvents and spin-coated onto silicon substrates. Subsequently, vertically aligned CNFs were grown on these NPs by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition at different temperatures. The electrical properties of the grown CNFs were evaluated using an electrochemical method, commonly used for the characterization of supercapacitors. The results show that the polymer–Pd nanohybrid solutions offer the optimum size range of palladium catalyst NPs enabling the growth of CNFs at temperatures as low as 350 °C. Furthermore, the CNFs grown at such a low temperature are vertically aligned similar to the CNFs grown at 550 °C. Finally the capacitive behavior of these CNFs was similar to that of the CNFs grown at high temperature assuring the same electrical properties thus enabling their usage in different applications such as on-chip capacitors, interconnects, thermal heat sink and energy storage solutions.