Effects of surface oxygen on carbon films synthesized by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Abstract Carbon films were deposited on copper substrates from ethanol by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. For the very first time, we report that surface oxygen on the copper foil is crucial to the growth of carbon films. The effects of surface oxygen on the growth of carbon films were investigated by XRD, SEM and Raman spectroscopy. The results indicated that surface oxygen on copper substrate played a dual role in determining the structure, phase and morphology of carbon films. Notably, pure, uniform and compact carbon films can be obtained when the oxidation exposure time reached 45 min. Furthermore, the intensity ratio I (D) /I (G) of carbon film has been calculated, suggesting that the content of Sp 2 atomic sites increased with the increase of the surface oxygen.