Scalable approach for the realization of garland shaped 3D assembly of CuTCNQ nanorods: an efficient electron emitter

Abstract

Going beyond the conventional presentation of CuTCNQ nanostructures over 2-dimensional Cu/Cu coated substrate, in the current work, the 3-dimensional backbone of metallic Cu nanowires was used to materialize garland shaped hierarchical nanoforms. Simplicity and a scalable amount of high quality product yield are the hallmarks of the current synthesis procedure, which offers a brilliant contrast to the existing severe lack of adequate protocols for synthesizing CuTCNQ nanostructures in bulk. In the present approach, gradual consumption of Cu in an acetonitrile solution during prolonged intervals is found to be responsible for triggering structural variances. A possible growth mechanism substantiated by FESEM and XRD analysis and based on temporal morphology evolution is also proposed. The optimized hierarchy, armed with the benefit of numerous emitters and appreciable inter-tip separation, is found to exhibit high field emission performance with low turn-on and threshold field values (2.69 and 6.11 V μm⁻¹ respectively). Moreover, the experimental electron emission result is verified through electrostatic field distribution calculation using ANSYS electromagnetic software. This facile strategy may pave the way for the practical realization of other charge transfer complex nanostructures, and on its own warrant their potential usage as humidity sensors, photo-detectors, photocatalysts etc.