Effect of Hot Filament Chemical Vapour Deposition Growth Method on Tungsten Carbide Nanostructures

Abstract

The synthesis of tungsten carbide nanostructures on silicon substrates using hot filament chemical vapour deposition is described. The effect of substrate temperature and gas mixture on structural and morphological properties of the nanostructure was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) and Raman spectroscopy. The XRD results show that different phases are more likely to grow due to increasing carbonisation by increasing the temperature. Also EDAX analyses confirm the presence of tungsten and carbon in structure. All Raman spectra indicate the occurrence of the amorphous carbon, characterised by two peaks, one related to carbon network and another which is due to disorder. From AFM images we can conclude that the grain size increased by increasing the temperature and this caused the increase in the roughness.