Rapid synthesis of thin amorphous carbon films by sugar dehydration and dispersion

Keith E. Whitener Jr; Keith E. Whitener Jr

doi:10.3934/matersci.2016.4.1309

AIMS Materials Science

2016, Volume 3, Issue 4: 1309-1320. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2016.4.1309

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Rapid synthesis of thin amorphous carbon films by sugar dehydration and dispersion

Keith E. Whitener Jr ^,

Chemistry Division, U. S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington D. C., 20375, United States

Received: 17 August 2016 Accepted: 23 September 2016 Published: 27 September 2016

We have prepared amorphous carbon films with variable thicknesses down to <5 nm using a simple procedure which takes minutes and employs no special equipment. We prepare a carbonaceous suspension by the dehydration reaction of sulfuric acid with glucose and show that adding this mixture dropwise into water creates a thin carbon film on the water’s surface which can be transferred to an arbitrary substrate. This transparent brown film is non-conductive and has a chemical makeup, excluding hydrogen, of CS_0.0213O_0.4563. After brief annealing under 10% H₂ in argon at 800 °C, the film has a high optical contrast and increased conductivity, with a chemical makeup of CO_0.0828, suggesting that the material has at least short-range graphitic order. We repeat the experiment with chitosan replacing glucose and show using Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) that it is likely that nitrogen incorporates into the graphitic lattice.
- thin carbon films,
- acid dehydration,
- high-temperature annealing,
- X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,
- Raman spectroscopy,
- atomic force microscopy
Citation: Keith E. Whitener Jr. Rapid synthesis of thin amorphous carbon films by sugar dehydration and dispersion[J]. AIMS Materials Science, 2016, 3(4): 1309-1320. doi: 10.3934/matersci.2016.4.1309

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Abstract

We have prepared amorphous carbon films with variable thicknesses down to <5 nm using a simple procedure which takes minutes and employs no special equipment. We prepare a carbonaceous suspension by the dehydration reaction of sulfuric acid with glucose and show that adding this mixture dropwise into water creates a thin carbon film on the water’s surface which can be transferred to an arbitrary substrate. This transparent brown film is non-conductive and has a chemical makeup, excluding hydrogen, of CS_0.0213O_0.4563. After brief annealing under 10% H₂ in argon at 800 °C, the film has a high optical contrast and increased conductivity, with a chemical makeup of CO_0.0828, suggesting that the material has at least short-range graphitic order. We repeat the experiment with chitosan replacing glucose and show using Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) that it is likely that nitrogen incorporates into the graphitic lattice.

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