Hybrid Nanostructures Based on Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene, Functionalized with BaO Nanoparticles Having Improved Emission Properties

The article presents the developed technology for the formation of hybrid nanostructures from carbon nanomaterials. These structures are based on two layers. The first layer is a buffer layer of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) flakes. The second layer is vertically aligned single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) that have been functionalized with BaO. The hybrid nanostructures were created using pulsed laser exposure. At the same time, laser exposure led to the fragmentation of BaO nanoparticles on the carbon surface. It was observed that following laser exposure, Ba(NO<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</inf>)2 particles, measuring up to 200 nm, fragmented into smaller BaO nanoparticles, only a few nanometers in size, which coated the nanotubes. The current-voltage characteristics (CVC) of field emission were measured, showing an increase in emission current compared to the initial layers of carbon nanomaterials. The BaO-functionalized hybrid nanostructures are anticipated to serve as efficient field emission cathodes. Maximum field emission current density of such cathodes achieves 2.0±0.1 A/cm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup>. making them suitable for applications in X-ray tubes, field emission displays, and vacuum microwave devices.