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Research Article | Open Access

Growth of Large-Area Single- and Bi-Layer Graphene by Controlled Carbon Precipitation on Polycrystalline Ni Surfaces

Alfonso Reina1Stefan Thiele2Xiaoting Jia1Sreekar Bhaviripudi3Mildred S. Dresselhaus3,4Juergen A. Schaefer2Jing Kong3()
Department of Materials Science and Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Massachusetts 02139 USA
Institut für Physik and Institut für Mikro- und Nanotechnologien Technische Universität Ilmenau Ilmenau 98684 Germany
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Massachusetts 02139 USA
Department of Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Massachusetts 02139 USA
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Abstract

We report graphene films composed mostly of one or two layers of graphene grown by controlled carbon precipitation on the surface of polycrystalline Ni thin films during atmospheric chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Controlling both the methane concentration during CVD and the substrate cooling rate during graphene growth can significantly improve the thickness uniformity. As a result, one- or two-layer graphene regions occupy up to 87% of the film area. Single layer coverage accounts for 5%–11% of the overall film. These regions expand across multiple grain boundaries of the underlying polycrystalline Ni film. The number density of sites with multilayer graphene/graphite (> 2 layers) is reduced as the cooling rate decreases. These films can also be transferred to other substrates and their sizes are only limited by the sizes of the Ni film and the CVD chamber. Here, we demonstrate the formation of films as large as 1 in2. These findings represent an important step towards the fabrication of large-scale high-quality graphene samples.

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Nano Research
Pages 509-516
Cite this article:
Reina A, Thiele S, Jia X, et al. Growth of Large-Area Single- and Bi-Layer Graphene by Controlled Carbon Precipitation on Polycrystalline Ni Surfaces. Nano Research, 2009, 2(6): 509-516. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-009-9059-y
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