Effect of titanium nitride coating on physical properties of three-dimensional graphene

Abstract

In this paper, titanium nitride (TiN) was applied on the surface and into the porous structure of three-dimensional graphene (3DG) by chemical method. This method consists of immersing 3DG into a solution containing Ti ions and annealing under ammonia atmosphere at 850 °C. The effects of TiN coating and high temperature annealing under NH3 on the physical properties of 3DG were investigated. For this purpose, the 3DG samples, with and without TiN coating, were characterized via XRD, SEM, XPS, and Raman spectroscopy. Then, the electrical resistivity, work function, and wettability of samples were determined by Van der Pauw method, contact angle meter, and UV photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), respectively. The results showed that an almost pure and very crystalline TiN phase with titanium/nitrogen atomic ratio of 1.09 was formed on the 3DG network. Annealing of 3DG under NH3 resulted in locally doping of graphene with nitrogen and generation of defects in its structure. After TiN coating, the work function value of 3DG (5 eV) was reduced to 4.68 eV, while its initial water contact angle decreased from 127° to 83°.