Field Emission Properties of the Dendritic Carbon Nanotubes Film Embedded with ZnO Quantum Dots

Response on the effects of individual differences of common carbon nanotubes on the field emission current stability and the luminescence uniformity of cathode film, a new type of cathode film made of dendritic carbon nanotubes embedded with Zinc oxide quantum dots is proposed. The film of dendritic carbon nanotubes was synthesized through high-temperature pyrolysis of iron phthalocyanine on a silicon substrate coated with zinc oxide nanoparticles. The dendritic structure looks like many small branches protrude from the main branches in SEM and TEM images, and both the branch and the trunk are embedded with Zinc oxide quantum dots. The turn-on field of the dendritic structure film is ∼1.3 V/μm at a current of 2 μA, which is much lower than that of the common carbon nanotube film, and the emission current and the luminescence uniformity are better than that of the common one. The whole film emission uniformity has been improved because the multi-emission sites out from the dendritic structure carbon nanotubes cover up the failure and defects of the single emission site