Micro- and Nano-structure Characterization of Isotropic Pyrocarbon Obtained via Chemical Vapor Deposition in Hot Wall Reactor

The hot wall reactor was used to deposit isotropic pyrocarbon. The density of the product was measured by Archimedes method. The fracture morphology and texture of the product were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Raman spectroscopy was also applied to characterizing the structure of the product. The results show that the density of the product is about 1.31 g/cm³. The pyrocarbon consists of granular particles with the size of about 1.5 μm under SEM images. Under TEM images, the pyrocarbon is composed of irregular grains and onion-like particles are also detected. The orientation angle (180 deg.) of pyrocarbon reveals its isotropic character. The I_D/I_G ratio in Raman spectrum is about 1.2, indicating the isotropic feature of the product qualitatively.