A routine procedure for growing very thin graphite substrate films has been developed. The films are grown pyrolytically in an ultra-high vacuum chamber by exposing (111) epitaxial nickel films to carbon monoxide gas. The nickel serves as a catalyst for the disproportionation of CO through the reaction 2C0 → C + CO2. The nickel catalyst is prepared by evaporation onto artificial mica at 400°C and annealing for 1/2 hour at 600°C in vacuum. Exposure of the annealed nickel to 1 torr CO for 3 hours at 500°C results in the growth of very thin continuous graphite films. The graphite is stripped from its nickel substrate in acid and mounted on holey formvar support films for use as specimen substrates.The graphite films, self-supporting over formvar holes up to five microns in diameter, have been studied by bright and dark field electron microscopy, by electron diffraction, and have been shadowed to reveal their topography and thickness. The films consist of individual crystallites typically a micron across with their basal planes parallel to the surface but oriented in different, apparently random directions about the normal to the basal plane.
Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy of Siloxanes
