Acid Etch Study of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofibers (VACNFs)

One of the major limitations in the development of ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensors based on one dimensional nanostructures is the difficulty involved with uniform growth of the nanofibers. Fabrication of the Vertically Aligned Carbon Nano Fibers (VACNFs) involve treatment of several chemicals including a variety of etchants. In previous work, successful measurement and characterization of electron beam patterned VACNFs is demonstrated using Atomic Force Microscopy. Also the effect of most commonly used etchant i.e. HF is studied. In this paper, the effect of acid etching on VACNFs is observed and characterized using a highly sensitive and precise Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Furthermore, statistical analysis is performed on AFM data to demonstrate data confidence and verify experiments.