Role of cooling rate in selective synthesis of graphene and carbon nanotube on Fe foil using hot filament chemical vapor deposition

In this study, graphene sheets and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were selectively grown on Fe foil at a relatively low growth temperature and varying cooling rates using a hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) apparatus with C2H2 as the precursor. The results of the scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy revealed that the increase of the cooling rate from 7 to 10 or 20 °C/min provoked a structure transition from CNT to graphene. The optimum crystal quality of the graphene sheets (Iq/Id ∼1.1) was achieved at the cooling rate of 20 °C/min. According to the AFM analysis, the thickness of the stacked graphene sheets was found to be ∼2.9–3.8 nm containing ∼8–11 monolayers. The XRD profiles suggest the coexistence of graphene, graphene oxide, and Fe3C structures on Fe foil.