Control of electrostatic self-assembly seeding of diamond nanoparticles on carbon nanowalls

Seeding of diamond nanoparticles on vertically-aligned multi-layer graphene, the so-called carbon nanowalls (CNWs), is studied by using deionized water, ethylene glycol, ethanol, and formamide as dispersion mediums. Detonation nanodiamond particles show the smallest mean size and size distribution with a high positive zeta potential when dispersed in ethanol. The contact angle of ethanol on CNWs is almost zero degree, confirming highly wetting behaviour. The diamond nanoparticles dispersed in ethanol are distributed the most uniformly with minimal aggregation on CNWs as opposed to those dispersed in other liquids. The resulting diamond nanoparticle-seeded CNWs, followed by short-term growth in microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition, show a marked decrease in field emission turn-on field down to 1.3 V μm−1 together with a large increase in current density, compared to bare CNWs without diamond seeding. The results provide a way to control the density, size, and uniformity (spacing) of diamond nanoparticles on CNWs and should be applied to fabricate hybrid materials and devices using nanodiamond and nanocarbons.