Synthesis of carbon nanosheets from Kapton polyimide by microwave plasma treatment

Vertically-aligned carbon nanosheets (CNSs) have been fabricated on the Cu substrate from Kapton polyimide (PI) film under Ar/H2 plasma irradiation. The high purity CNSs possess petal-like structures with many sharp edges, which are composed of few-layer graphene sheets. In addition, the irradiated Kapton PI film was covered by a layer of urchin-like carbon particles with about 4 μm in diameter, which also consist of few-layer graphene sheets along radial directions. Except for the morphologies, both the CNSs and urchin-like carbon particles demonstrate similar microstructures and chemical compositions.