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One-step synthesis of novel snowflake-like Si-O/Si-C nanostructures on 3D graphene/Cu foam by chemical vapor deposition

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Abstract

The recent development of synthesis processes for three-dimensional (3D) graphene-based structures has tended to focus on continuous improvement of porous nanostructures, doping modification during thin-film fabrication, and mechanisms for building 3D architectures. Here, we synthesized novel snowflake-like Si-O/Si-C nanostructures on 3D graphene/Cu foam by one-step low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Through systematic micromorphological characterization, it was determined that the formation mechanism of the nanostructures involved the melting of the Cu foam surface and the subsequent condensation of the resulting vapor, 3D growth of graphene through catalysis in the presence of Cu, and finally, nucleation of the Si-O/Si-C nanostructure in the carbon-rich atmosphere. Thus, by tuning the growth temperature and duration, it should be possible to control the nucleation and evolution of such snowflake-like nanostructures with precision. Electrochemical measurements indicated that the snowflake-like nanostructures showed excellent performance as a material for energy storage. The highest specific capacitance of the Si-O/Si-C nanostructures was ∼963.2 mF/cm2 at a scan rate of 1 mV/s. Further, even after 20,000 sequential cycles, the electrode retained 94.4% of its capacitance.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61604115 and 61334002), the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (No. 2016ZDJC-09), the Key Research and Development program in Shaanxi Province (No. 2017ZDCXL-GY-11-03), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2015M580814), the Postdoctoral Science Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. XJS15066 and JB161103).

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  1. Jing Ning and Dong Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Discipline Laboratory of Wide Band Gap Semiconductor Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, 710071, China

    Jing Ning, Dong Wang, Jincheng Zhang, Xin Feng, Ruixia Zhong, Jiabo Chen, Jianguo Dong & Yue Hao

  2. Shaanxi Joint Key Laboratory of Graphene, Xidian University, Xi’an, 710071, China

    Jing Ning, Dong Wang, Jincheng Zhang, Xin Feng, Ruixia Zhong, Jiabo Chen, Jianguo Dong & Yue Hao

  3. School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Xidian University, Xi’an, 710071, China

    Lixin Guo

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  1. Jing Ning
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  2. Dong Wang
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Correspondence to Dong Wang or Jincheng Zhang.

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Ning, J., Wang, D., Zhang, J. et al. One-step synthesis of novel snowflake-like Si-O/Si-C nanostructures on 3D graphene/Cu foam by chemical vapor deposition. Nano Res. 11, 1861–1872 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1804-z

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