Carbon film growth on iron substrates by a CVD method

Abstract

Carbon film coatings have been produced by a hot-wall chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method under moderate conditions from pyrolysis of a mixture of propane and argon on an Fe(110) substrate at temperatures of 800-900°C for different deposition times. The effects of temperature and reaction time on the growth of the carbon films were studied. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Raman microscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and x-ray diffraction methods have been performed to study the surface morphologies, growth features and microstructures of the carbon film coatings. The FESEM analyses indicated that carbon films on an Fe substrate consisted of flat-layer and filamentous morphologies. Raman and AES analyses showed that the carbon initially was crystalline but the degree of disorder in the top layer of the carbon film increased with increasing deposition temperature. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy studies are also in agreement with Raman results. The same trend was observed when the deposition time was increased from 5 to 30 min. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.