Chemical vapor deposition of graphene: Synthesis, characterization, and applications

Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction of graphene, the electrical properties of graphene, and chemical vapor deposition method of graphene synthesis.;Chapter 2 discusses a simple, scalable and cost-efficient method to prepare graphene using methane-based chemical vapor deposition on nickel films deposited over complete Si/SiO2 wafers. By using highly diluted methane, single- and few-layer graphene were obtained, as confirmed by micro Raman spectroscopy. In addition, a transfer technique has been applied to transfer the graphene film to target substrates via nickel etching. Field-effect transistors based on the graphene films transferred to Si/SiO2 substrates revealed a weak p-type gate dependence, while transferring of the graphene films to glass substrate allowed its characterization as transparent conductive films, exhibiting transmittance of 80% in the visible wavelength range.;In chapter 3, continuous, highly flexible, and transparent few-layer graphene films synthesized from Ni film were implemented as transparent conductive electrodes (TCE) in organic photovoltaic cells. Graphene films were synthesized by CVD, transferred to transparent substrates, and evaluated in organic solar cell heterojunctions (TCE/poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene:poly styrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS)/copper phthalocyanine/fullerene/bathocuproine/aluminum). Key to our success is the continuous nature of the CVD graphene films, which led to minimal surface roughness (∼0.9 nm) and offered sheet resistance down to 230 Ω/sq (at 72% transparency), much lower than stacked graphene flakes at similar transparency.;In chapter 4, we discuss comparative study and Raman characterization on the formation of graphene on single crystal Ni (111) and polycrystalline Ni substrates using chemical vapor deposition. Preferential formation of monolayer/bilayer graphene on the single crystal surface is attributed to its atomically smooth surface and the absence of grain boundaries. In contrast, CVD graphene formed on polycrystalline Ni leads to higher percentage of multilayer graphene (≥3 layers), which is attributed to the presence of grain boundaries in Ni that can serve as nucleation sites for multilayer growth.;Chapter 5 discusses a vapor trapping method for the growth of large-grain, single-crystalline graphene flowers with grain size up to 100 µm. Controlled growth of graphene flowers with four lobes and six lobes has been achieved by varying the growth pressure and the methane to hydrogen ratio. Surprisingly, electron backscatter diffraction study revealed that the graphene morphology had little correlation with the crystalline orientation of underlying copper substrate.Our vapor trapping method provides a viable way for large-grain single-crystalline graphene synthesis for potential high-performance graphene-based electronics.;In chapter 6, a simple, clean, and highly anisotropic hydrogen etching method was developed for chemical vapor deposited graphene catalyzed by the copper substrate. By exposing CVD graphene on copper foil to hydrogen flow around 800 °C, we observed that the initially continuous graphene can be etched to have many hexagonal openings. In addition, we found that the etching is temperature dependent. Compared to other temperatures (700, 900, and 1000 °C), etching of graphene at 800 °C is most efficient and anisotropic. Of the angles of graphene edges after etching, 80% are 120°, indicating the etching is highly anisotropic. No increase of the D band along the etched edges indicates that the crystallographic orientation of etching is in the zigzag direction. Furthermore, we observed that copper played an important role in catalyzing the etching reaction, as no etching was observed for graphene transferred to Si/SiO2 under similar conditions. This highly anisotropic hydrogen etching technology may work as a simple and convenient way to determine graphene crystal orientation and grain size and may enable the etching of graphene into nanoribbons for electronic applications.