University of Groningen
Carbon-based hybrid materials: growth, characterization and investigation of properties
Arshad, Muhammad
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Publication date: 2018
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Arshad, M. (2018). Carbon-based hybrid materials: growth, characterization and investigation of properties. University of Groningen.
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Carbon-based hybrid materials: growth,
characterization and investigation of
properties
Carbon-based hybrid materials: growth, characterization and investigation of properties
Muhammad Arshad PhD Thesis
University of Groningen
The work presented in this thesis was performed in the group “Surface and Thin Films” (part of the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials) of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and in the Istituto Officina dei Materiali CNR, Basovizza 34149 Trieste, Italy.
The author was financially supported by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Emerging Nations Science Foundation (ENSF) Trieste, Italy and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Advanced Light Source (ALS), Berkely CA, USA.
Front Cover: An artistic view, designed by Leonid Solianyk, featuring single- walled carbon nanotubes, which are vertically aligned to the substrate.
Printed by: Ipskamp Drukkers B.V.
ISSN: 1570-1530
ISBN (printed version): 978-94-034-1097-5
ISBN (electronic version): 978-94-034-1096-8
Carbon-based Hybrid Materials: Growth,
Characterization and Investigation of
Properties
PhD thesis
to obtain the degree of PhD at the
University of Groningen
on the authority of the
Rector Magnificus Prof. E. Sterken
and in accordance with
the decision by the College of Deans
This thesis will be defended in public on
Friday 07 December 2018 at 9:00 hours
by
Muhammad Arshad
born on 12 December 1978
in Narowal, Punjab, Pakistan
Supervisor
Prof. P. Rudolf
Co-supervisor
Dr. Cinzia Cepek
Assessment committee
Prof. M. A. Loi
Prof. P. Milani
Prof. A. Morgante
Table of contents
Chapter 1
Introduction 1
1.1 Carbon nanostructures 2
1.2 Carbon-based hybrid materials 5
1.3 Motivation of the thesis 7
1.4 Thesis outline 9
Chapter 2
Synthesis and experimental methods 16
2.1 Synthesis techniques 17
2.1.1 Chemical vapour deposition 17
2.1.2 Graphene oxide synthesis/ reduction of graphene oxide
20
2.1.3 Hydrothermal solution processing 21 2.1.4 Preparation of GO-TiO2 composite films 23 2.2 Characterization techniques
2.2.1 Photoelectron spectroscopy (Chapters 3, 6, 7) 24 2.2.2 Pump-probe spectroscopy (Chapters 4, 5) 30 2.2.3 Raman spectroscopy (Chapters 3 – 6) 32 2.2.4 Scanning electron microscopy (Chapters 3 – 7) 33 2.2.5 Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (Chapters 6,
7)
34
2.2.6 Transmission electron microscopy (Chapter 6) 34
2.2.7 X-ray diffraction (Chapter 7) 35
2.2.8 UV/visible spectroscopy (Chapter 7) 35 2.2.9 Electronic transport measurements (Chapter 7) 36
Chapter 3
Carbon nanofibers grown on vertically aligned InAs nanowires
40
3.1 Introduction 41
3.2 Experimental details 42
3.3 Results and discussion 44
3.3.1 Substrate pre-treatment 44
3.3.2 Scanning electron microscopy analysis 46 3.3.3 Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy 51
3.4 Conclusions 55
Chapter 4
Aligned and unaligned carbon nanotubes: growth and photoinduced charge transfer mechanism
vvvv
58
4.1 Introduction 59
4.2 Growth of carbon nanotubes 61
4.3 Results and discussion 64
4.3.1 Raman analysis 64
4.3.2 Transient reflectivity measurements 65
4.4 Conclusions 77
Chapter 5
Vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes: optical properties
vvvv
81
5.1 Introduction 82
5.2 Experimental details 84
5.3 One colour transient measurements 86
Chapter 6
Reduced graphene oxide - zinc oxide hybrid nanostructures 97
6.1 Introduction 98
6.2 Experimental details 100
6.3 Results and discussion 101
6.3.1 Scanning and transmission electron microscopy analysis
vvvv
101
6.3.2 Raman spectroscopy 105
6.3.3 X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results 108
6.4 Conclusions 112
Chapter 7
Graphene oxide-TiO2 nanocomposite 116
7.1 Introduction 117
7.2 Experimental details
7.2.1 Materials and sample preparation
7.2.2 Preparation of GO-TiO2 composite films on ITO substrates
119 119
0120
7.3 Results and discussion 120
7.4 Conclusions 129
Summary 133
Samenvatting 136
Curriculum vitae of Muhammad Arshad 141
