Synthesis And Optoelectric Properties Of Carbon Nanoparticles

In recent years, carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) have drawn increasing attention owing totheir unique structure and electrical, optical properties. In this dissertation, starting with thereview of the development of carbon-based materials and the progress in the carbonnanoparticles synthesis, we introduce a simple and low cost flame synthesis process tofabricate carbon nanoparticles and discuss the growth mechanism. On this basis, we focusour study on their applications in the field emission and infrared optoelectric properties, anddemonstrate all-carbon based standalone sensor array as a programmable system for infrareddetection. Main work and findings of the dissertation are listed as follows:1. A novel flame synthesis method has been developed to synthesize carbonnanoparticles. This method is simple, direct, low-cost, and environmentally friendly. Theexperimental results indicate that both reaction time and temperature are important factorsfor CNPs synthesis. Moreover, the growth mechanism of the CNPs has been intensivelydiscussed. The ethanol undergoes the pyrolytic reactions to form the intermediate radicalssuch as C2H4O and C2H4,and the C2H4could convert into C2H2forming polycyclic aromatichydrocarbons, while C2H4O plays an important role in producing carbon nanostructure withcurved and stacked graphene layers.2. We studied the field emission properties of the CNPs on the carbon fabric substrate.The sample exhibits good field emission characteristics, such as low threshold electrical fieldof around (2.8MV/m-1), a high emission current density (108mA/cm2). The good fieldemission performance may be due to the high thermal conductivity value (2.34W/m K) ofthe carbon fabric and CNPs.3. We fabricated a novel flexible sensitive infrared sensor on the PDMS substrate viaa dry transfer method. The device shows a sharp response (~68ms) with a large currentchange(~52.9%), and exhibits good photoresponse even in the low infrared power density of56μW/mm2. Furthermore, the device shows the self-cleaning characteristic, with anapparent contact angle of~150.2°and a sliding angle of~4°.4. We demonstrated a simple infrared sensor array (2×2pixels) based on CNPs,which is capable of real-time display, multiplexed infrared power density sensing byintegrating with programmable micro controller unit (MCU) system. Furthermore, we packaged the carbon nanotubes (CNTS) based flexible solid-state supercapacitor (SC) intothe sensor and assembled the all-carbon flexible standalone infrared detection system.