Nanocarbon colloid produced by electro-spark discharge in ethanol for seeding the substrates in MPACVD synthesis of polycrystalline diamond films

Abstract

We produced a nanocarbon colloid by electro-spark discharge as substrate seeding for microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition (MPACVD) synthesis of micro- and nano-crystalline diamond films and solid free-standing microcrystalline diamond plates. The colloid was produced by a specially designed device via a pulse electro-spark discharge in ethanol. The nanocrystalline diamond films and polycrystalline plates that were grown were examined by optical, SEM and TEMmicroscopies and Raman spectroscopy.