Symmetric growth of carbon nanosheets on Cu nanowires by a surface diffusion mechanism

Aligned carbon nanosheets were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition using acetylene as a source gas and Cu nanowires as catalysts at 250 deg. C. The nanosheets follow the alignment of the original Cu nanowire arrays. Each Cu nanowire always initiates the symmetric growth of twin nanosheets in opposite directions. The length of the nanosheets is several microns, similar to that of the Cu nanowires. Their thickness is about 100 nm and is controlled by the diameter of the Cu nanowires. Their width depends on growth time, which is about 1.2 μm for 20 min of growth. During the two-dimensional growth, the Cu nanowires maintain their one-dimensional shape. The nanosheets grow by surface diffusion of growth species on Cu nanowires, instead of a vapor-liquid-solid mechanism. This nanowire-catalyzed chemical vapor deposition method is simple and can be extended to the fabrication of other two-dimensional nanostructures