TY - JOUR
T1 - Thermally Stable and Electrically Conductive, Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube/Silicon Infiltrated Composite Structures for High-Temperature Electrodes
AU - Zou, Qi Ming
AU - Deng, Lei Min
AU - Li, Da Wei
AU - Zhou, Yun Shen
AU - Golgir, Hossein Rabiee
AU - Keramatnejad, Kamran
AU - Fan, Li Sha
AU - Jiang, Lan
AU - Silvain, Jean Francois
AU - Lu, Yong Feng
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2017/10/25
Y1 - 2017/10/25
N2 - Traditional ceramic-based, high-temperature electrode materials (e.g., lanthanum chromate) are severely limited due to their conditional electrical conductivity and poor stability under harsh circumstances. Advanced composite structures based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) and high-temperature ceramics are expected to address this grand challenge, in which ceramic serves as a shielding layer protecting the VACNTs from the oxidation and erosive environment, while the VACNTs work as a conductor. However, it is still a great challenge to fabricate VACNT/ceramic composite structures due to the limited diffusion of ceramics inside the VACNT arrays. In this work, we report on the controllable fabrication of infiltrated (and noninfiltrated) VACNT/silicon composite structures via thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [and laser-assisted CVD]. In laser-assisted CVD, low-crystalline silicon (Si) was quickly deposited at the VACNT subsurfaces/surfaces followed by the formation of high-crystalline Si layers, thus resulting in noninfiltrated composite structures. Unlike laser-assisted CVD, thermal CVD activated the precursors inside and outside the VACNTs simultaneously, which realized uniform infiltrated VACNT/Si composite structures. The growth mechanisms for infiltrated and noninfiltrated VACNT/ceramic composites, which we attributed to the different temperature distributions and gas diffusion mechanism in VACNTs, were investigated. More importantly, the as-farbicated composite structures exhibited excellent multifunctional properties, such as excellent antioxidative ability (up to 1100 °C), high thermal stability (up to 1400 °C), good high velocity hot gas erosion resistance, and good electrical conductivity (∼8.95 Sm-1 at 823 K). The work presented here brings a simple, new approach to the fabrication of advanced composite structures for hot electrode applications.
AB - Traditional ceramic-based, high-temperature electrode materials (e.g., lanthanum chromate) are severely limited due to their conditional electrical conductivity and poor stability under harsh circumstances. Advanced composite structures based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) and high-temperature ceramics are expected to address this grand challenge, in which ceramic serves as a shielding layer protecting the VACNTs from the oxidation and erosive environment, while the VACNTs work as a conductor. However, it is still a great challenge to fabricate VACNT/ceramic composite structures due to the limited diffusion of ceramics inside the VACNT arrays. In this work, we report on the controllable fabrication of infiltrated (and noninfiltrated) VACNT/silicon composite structures via thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [and laser-assisted CVD]. In laser-assisted CVD, low-crystalline silicon (Si) was quickly deposited at the VACNT subsurfaces/surfaces followed by the formation of high-crystalline Si layers, thus resulting in noninfiltrated composite structures. Unlike laser-assisted CVD, thermal CVD activated the precursors inside and outside the VACNTs simultaneously, which realized uniform infiltrated VACNT/Si composite structures. The growth mechanisms for infiltrated and noninfiltrated VACNT/ceramic composites, which we attributed to the different temperature distributions and gas diffusion mechanism in VACNTs, were investigated. More importantly, the as-farbicated composite structures exhibited excellent multifunctional properties, such as excellent antioxidative ability (up to 1100 °C), high thermal stability (up to 1400 °C), good high velocity hot gas erosion resistance, and good electrical conductivity (∼8.95 Sm-1 at 823 K). The work presented here brings a simple, new approach to the fabrication of advanced composite structures for hot electrode applications.
KW - ceramic composite
KW - high-temperature electrode
KW - infiltration
KW - thermal chemical vapor deposition
KW - vertically aligned carbon nanotube
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85032894515
U2 - 10.1021/acsami.7b12087
DO - 10.1021/acsami.7b12087
M3 - Article
C2 - 28976178
AN - SCOPUS:85032894515
SN - 1944-8244
VL - 9
SP - 37340
EP - 37349
JO - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
IS - 42
ER -