Improved field emission properties of α-Fe 2 O 3 nanoflakes with current aging treatment and morphology optimization

• Published in: Nanotechnology 2018-02, Vol.29 (8), p.085708
• Main Authors: Wu, Junqing, Deng, Shaozhi, Xu, Ningsheng, Chen, Jun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0957-4484; 1361-6528
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/aaa449

α-Fe O nanomaterials were synthesized by thermal oxidation of pure iron foil and the effects of current aging treatment and morphology on their field emission properties were systematically investigated. The current aging treatment was found to be an efficient method to improve the field emission properties of α-Fe O nanoflakes. The emission current density was largely enhanced from 0.05-5.70 mA cm under an applied electrical field of 7.8 MV m , and their threshold field decreased from than 11.0-6.6 MV m after the current aging treatment. The mechanism of the improvement in the field emission performance of α-Fe O nanoflakes induced by the current aging treatment is discussed. α-Fe O nanostructures with various morphologies were synthesized by adjusting the growth temperatures between 300 °C-450 °C to optimize their morphologies. α-Fe O nanoflakes synthesized at 350 °C were superior field emitters with a low threshold field of 5.1 MV m , high current density of 63.4 mA cm , and stable emission, which demonstrated that α-Fe O nanoflakes could be a promising material for application as field emitters.