Insight into the influence of plasma-assisted heteroatom doping and defect formation in enhancing the areal capacitance of carbon nanowalls

Structural defects and heteroatoms play a key role in electrochemical reactions. However, there is still no common understanding of what has a greater impact on electrochemical processes: defects or the type of heteroatoms. To clarify these factors, defective carbon nanowalls treated by reactive etching in different atmospheres, such as argon and mixtures of argon with nitrogen, chlorine, hydrogen bromide, and sulfur fluoride were used. Properties of the obtained samples were analyzed with Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. The results of the study showed that the plasma modification of carbon nanowalls leads to the removal of the amorphous layer and subsequent implantation of heteroatoms, which ultimately leads to an increase in their areal capacitance 1.5-fold in a 1:2 argon - nitrogen mixture and 2-fold in a 1:4 argon-nitrogen mixture.