Electrically conducting diamond deposition

Alternative methods for introducing electrical conductivity into diamond have been developed, which include dopants such as nitrogen[72,78,81,89], sp2 carbon inclusions in grain boundaries[75], and metal and metal cluster inclusions, and subsurface hydrogen[75]. Other forms of conductive diamond, such as surface conductive[81] or ultracrystalline diamond[78] have also been quoted in literature, suggesting that several types of chemically vapor-deposited diamond may find electrochemical applications[75],... 

Highly boron-doped diamond films, which have been widely studied in electrochemistry, can be grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and are electrically conductive. Different electrochemical properties of boron-doped diamond films have been studied, such as reactivity [133] and electronic structure [134]. Different characterization techniques have been used to study the electrochemistry of diamond, such as scanning electron microscopy [123, 135] and Raman spectroscopy [125,136]. 

Boron incorporated during a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process is now proving to be the most popular means of imparting electrical conductivity on the diamond lattice for use in electrochemistry, both from a research perspective and commercially, for reasons that will be discussed later. There have been many reviews since 1983, both in journals [2-9] and books [10] on the use of diamonds in electrochemistry. This chapter aims to review the field and provide a comprehensive discussion on the current understanding of the fundamental factors controlling the response of boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes. Latest developments (as of 2014) are also highlighted. 

To solve the problem, we considered that a boron-doped diamond, BDD, is the most ideal anode for electrochemical fluorination and so we focused on a BDD electrode. The BDD film is prepared on a carbon substrate by hot-filament chemical vapor deposition with doping boron into the diamond lattice, adding trimethylboran gas to a mixed gas of methane and hydrogen. Since a BDD film has a high electric conductivity and stability of structure such as diamond, it is expected that a BDD electrode can be used as a new anode material in this... 

In addition to silicon and metals, a third important element being deposited as thin films is diamond (Celii and Butler, 1991 May, 2000). For many years, diamonds were synthesized by a high pressure/high temperature technique that produced bulk diamonds. More recently, the interest in diamonds has expanded to thin films. Diamond has a slew of properties that make it a desired material in thin-film form hardness, thermal conductivity, optical transparency, chemical resistance, electrical insulation, and susceptibility to doping. Thin film diamond is prepared using chemical vapor deposition, and we examine the process in some detail as a prototypical chemical vapor example. Despite its importance and the intensity of research focused on diamond chemical vapor deposition, there remains uncertainty about the exact mechanism. 

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