ABSTRACT
Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is a metastable form of amorphous carbon characterized by its high fraction of sp3-bonded carbon atoms. This chapter focuses on the physical, chemical and electrochemical properties of this type of high sp3-containing DLC films. It discusses Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) thin films exhibit a rich surface chemistry even after the deposition. Further, there exist a plethora of different recipes to modify the surface functionalization with different physical, chemical and electrochemical treatments. High sp3-containing a-C films are typically fabricated with three main approaches: pulsed DC sputtering, different types of arc processes and various laser ablation methods. The chapter shows that ta-C thin films possess various interesting properties that make them potential materials for many application fields. Basic electrochemical properties of the ta-C thin film electrodes were studied by cyclic voltammetry by measuring the water window and apparent double-layer capacitance in sulfuric acid.
