Synthesis and field emission of diamond-like carbon nanorods on TiO2/Ti nanotube arrays

Highly ordered TiO2/Ti nanotube arrays were fabricated by anodic oxidation method in 0.5 wt% HF. Using prepared TiO2/Ti nanotube arrays deposited Ni nanoparticles as substrate, high quality diamond-like carbon nanorods (DLCNRs) were synthesized by a conventional method of chemical vapor deposition at 750 °C in nitrogen atmosphere. DLCNRs were analyzed by filed emission scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectrometer. It is very interesting that DLCNRs possess pagoda shape with the length of 3–10 μm. Raman spectra show two strong peaks about 1332 cm−1 and 1598 cm−1, indicating the formation of diamond-like carbon. The field emission measurements suggest that DLCNRs/TiO2/Ti has excellent field emission properties, a low turn-on field about 3.0 V/μm, no evident decay at 3.4 mA/cm2 in 480 min.