Low temperature critical growth of high quality nitrogen doped graphene on dielectrics by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Direct CVD Graphene Growth on Semiconductors and Dielectrics for Transfer-Free Device Fabrication

Graphene is the most broadly discussed and studied two-dimensional material because of its preeminent physical, mechanical, optical, and thermal properties. Until now, metal-catalyzed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been widely employed for the scalable production of high-quality graphene. However, in order to incorporate the graphene into electronic devices, a transfer process from metal substrates to targeted substrates is inevitable. This process usually results in contamination, wrinkling, and breakage of graphene samples - undesirable in graphene-based technology and not compatible with industrial production. Therefore, direct graphene growth on desired semiconductor and dielectric substrates is considered as an effective alternative. Over the past years, there have been intensive investigations to realize direct graphene growth using CVD methods without the catalytic role of metals. Owing to the low catalytic activity of non-metal substrates for carbon precursor decomposition and graphene growth, several strategies have been designed to facilitate and engineer graphene fabrication on semiconductors and insulators. Here, those developed strategies for direct CVD graphene growth on semiconductors and dielectrics for transfer-free fabrication of electronic devices are reviewed. By employing these methods, various graphene-related structures can be directly prepared on desired substrates and exhibit excellent performance, providing versatile routes for varied graphene-based materials fabrication.

Effect of the aromatic precursor flow rate on the morphology and properties of carbon nanostructures in plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Understanding the effects of the synthesis parameters on the morphology and electrochemical properties of nanocarbon layers is a key step in the development of application-tailored nanostructures.

Direct preparation of high quality graphene on dielectric substrates

Recent advances in the field of the direct growth of graphene on dielectric substrates are described.

Electrochemical doping of three-dimensional graphene networks used as efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction

Three-dimensional graphene networks (3DGNs) doped with a mono-heteroatom of N or B, or dual-heteroatoms of N and B were fabricated, which exhibit excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance. Importantly, the onset potential and current density of N and B co-doped 3DGNs are comparable to those of the commercial Pt (30%)/C catalyst.

Residual metallic contamination of transferred chemical vapor deposited graphene

Integration of graphene with Si microelectronics is very appealing by offering a potentially broad range of new functionalities. New materials to be integrated with the Si platform must conform to stringent purity standards. Here, we investigate graphene layers grown on copper foils by chemical vapor deposition and transferred to silicon wafers by wet etching and electrochemical delamination methods with respect to residual submonolayer metallic contaminations. Regardless of the transfer method and associated cleaning scheme, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and total reflection X-ray fluorescence measurements indicate that the graphene sheets are contaminated with residual metals (copper, iron) with a concentration exceeding 10(13) atoms/cm(2). These metal impurities appear to be partially mobile upon thermal treatment, as shown by depth profiling and reduction of the minority charge carrier diffusion length in the silicon substrate. As residual metallic impurities can significantly alter electronic and electrochemical properties of graphene and can severely impede the process of integration with silicon microelectronics, these results reveal that further progress in synthesis, handling, and cleaning of graphene is required to advance electronic and optoelectronic applications.

Graphene single crystals: size and morphology engineering

Recently developed chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is considered as an effective way to large-area and high-quality graphene preparation due to its ultra-low cost, high controllability, and high scalability. However, CVD-grown graphene film is polycrystalline, and composed of numerous grains separated by grain boundaries, which are detrimental to graphene-based electronics. Intensive investigations have been inspired on the controlled growth of graphene single crystals with the absence of intrinsic defects. As the two most concerned parameters, the size and morphology serve critical roles in affecting properties and understanding the growth mechanism of graphene crystals. Therefore, a precise tuning of the size and morphology will be of great significance in scale-up graphene production and wide applications. Here, recent advances in the synthesis of graphene single crystals on both metals and dielectric substrates by the CVD method are discussed. The review mainly covers the size and morphology engineering of graphene single crystals. Furthermore, recent progress in the growth mechanism and device applications of graphene single crystals are presented. Finally, the opportunities and challenges are discussed.

Three-dimensional N,B-doped graphene aerogel as a synergistically enhanced metal-free catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction

A novel two-step strategy including a hydrothermal reaction and pyrolysis procedure was developed for the preparation of a robust N,B-codoped GA catalyst with superior ORR activity, good tolerance of methanol crossover and excellent stability.