Nickel-carbon thin films have been deposited on silicon substrate in the CH4/Air/H2 atmosphere by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy were employed to investigate the morphology and microstructure of the samples. The results showed that graphitic carbon encapsulated nickel, nickel nanoparticles embedded in few-layer graphene, and entangled few-layer graphene nanoribbons were synthesized, respectively, corresponding to different diameter of nickel particles. The growth mechanism of the different microstructures has been discussed.
Ni-C, graphene, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition
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