Low-Temperature and Rapid Growth of Large Single-Crystalline Graphene with Ethane

5 years ago

Low-Temperature and Rapid Growth of Large Single-Crystalline Graphene with Ethane

Li Lin, Dingran Rui, Ning Kang, Mingzhan Wang, Xiao Sun, Congwei Tan, Zhongfan Liu, Di Wei, Hailin Peng, Jincan Zhang, Luzhao Sun, Jiayu Li, H. Q. Xu

Future applications of graphene rely highly on the production of large-area high-quality graphene, especially large single-crystalline graphene, due to the reduction of defects caused by grain boundaries. However, current large single-crystalline graphene growing methodologies are suffering from low growth rate and as a result, industrial graphene production is always confronted by high energy consumption, which is primarily caused by high growth temperature and long growth time. Herein, a new growth condition achieved via ethane being the carbon feedstock to achieve low-temperature yet rapid growth of large single-crystalline graphene is reported. Ethane condition gives a growth rate about four times faster than methane, achieving about 420 µm min−1 for the growth of sub-centimeter graphene single crystals at temperature about 1000 °C. In addition, the temperature threshold to obtain graphene using ethane can be reduced to 750 °C, lower than the general growth temperature threshold (about 1000 °C) with methane on copper foil. Meanwhile ethane always keeps higher graphene growth rate than methane under the same growth temperature. This study demonstrates that ethane is indeed a potential carbon source for efficient growth of large single-crystalline graphene, thus paves the way for graphene in high-end electronical and optoelectronical applications. Low-temperature growth and rapid growth of large graphene single crystals are realized by using ethane as carbon source. This enables a remarkably high growth rate of 420 µm min−1 during the synthesis of sub-centimeter-sized graphene single crystals. In addition, the required temperature threshold for graphene growth can be reduced to 750 °C, lower than that used with methane.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1002/smll.201702916