Liu Ai-Ping

Structural characteristics of surface-functionalized nitrogen-doped diamond-like carbon films and effective adjustment to cell attachment*

Nitrogen-doped diamond-like carbon (DLC:N) films prepared by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc technology are functionalized with various chemical molecules including dopamine (DA), 3-Aminobenzeneboronic acid (APBA), and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and the impacts of surface functionalities on the surface morphologies, compositions, microstructures, and cell compatibility of the DLC:N films are systematically investigated. We demonstrate that the surface groups of DLC:N have a significant effect on the surface and structural properties of the film. The activity of PC12 cells depends on the particular type of surface functional groups of DLC:N films regardless of surface roughness and wettability. Our research offers a novel way for designing functionalized carbon films as tailorable substrates for biosensors and biomedical engineering applications.

ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF PHOSPHORUS INCORPORATED TETRAHEDRAL AMORPHOUS CARBON FILMS

Great attention has been given to diamond-like carbon(DLC) or tetrahedral amorphous carbon(ta-C) films due to their potential applications in electronic devices as semiconductor materials.The controlled variation of electrical conductivity through doping is of primary importance. Active phosphorus element could be introduced into ta-C films to achieve n-type doping and the resulted films show potential applications as photovoltaic solar cells,semiconductor field emitters or biomedical coatings.However,an inconsistency of doping effect and graphitization of the bonding still exists in the role of phosphorus atoms in carbon films.A detailed study on the conduction mechanism related to the structural changes should be attempted to further understand the conductive behavior of the films.Based on this purpose,phosphorus incorporated tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C:P) films were deposited using filtered cathodic vacuum arc technology with PH_3 as a dopant source under negative substrate biases of 0--200 V.The structural characteristics of ta-C:P films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and Raman spectroscopy,and the electrical behaviors of the films were examined by measuring electrical conductivity at the temperature range of 293-573 K and current-voltage curves.Results indicate that phosphorus implantation enhances the contents of sp~2 sites in ta-C films and the numbers of localized electronicπandπ~* states as hopping sites,and improves the conductive ability of the films.ta-C:P film obtained at-80 V shows the best conductive property.The carriers of ta-C:P films represent the hopping conduction in localized band tail states and the thermally activated conduction in extended states in the temperament range of 293-573 K.The results of current-voltage curves indicate that ta-C:P films are n-type semiconductor materials.