Single and polycrystalline graphene on Rh(111) following different growth mechanisms

Graphene Incorporated Electrospun Nanofiber for Electrochemical Sensing and Biomedical Applications: A Critical Review

The extraordinary material graphene arrived in the fields of engineering and science to instigate a material revolution in 2004. Graphene has promptly risen as the super star due to its outstanding properties. Graphene is an allotrope of carbon and is made up of sp²-bonded carbon atoms placed in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. Graphite consists of stacked layers of graphene. Due to the distinctive structural features as well as excellent physico-chemical and electrical conductivity, graphene allows remarkable improvement in the performance of electrospun nanofibers (NFs), which results in the enhancement of promising applications in NF-based sensor and biomedical technologies. Electrospinning is an easy, economical, and versatile technology depending on electrostatic repulsion between the surface charges to generate fibers from the extensive list of polymeric and ceramic materials with diameters down to a few nanometers. NFs have emerged as important and attractive platform with outstanding properties for biosensing and biomedical applications, because of their excellent functional features, that include high porosity, high surface area to volume ratio, high catalytic and charge transfer, much better electrical conductivity, controllable nanofiber mat configuration, biocompatibility, and bioresorbability. The inclusion of graphene nanomaterials (GNMs) into NFs is highly desirable. Pre-processing techniques and post-processing techniques to incorporate GNMs into electrospun polymer NFs are precisely discussed. The accomplishment and the utilization of NFs containing GNMs in the electrochemical biosensing pathway for the detection of a broad range biological analytes are discussed. Graphene oxide (GO) has great importance and potential in the biomedical field and can imitate the composition of the extracellular matrix. The oxygen-rich GO is hydrophilic in nature and easily disperses in water, and assists in cell growth, drug delivery, and antimicrobial properties of electrospun nanofiber matrices. NFs containing GO for tissue engineering, drug and gene delivery, wound healing applications, and medical equipment are discussed. NFs containing GO have importance in biomedical applications, which include engineered cardiac patches, instrument coatings, and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) for motion sensing applications. This review deals with graphene-based nanomaterials (GNMs) such as GO incorporated electrospun polymeric NFs for biosensing and biomedical applications, that can bridge the gap between the laboratory facility and industry.

Graphene impregnated electrospun nanofiber sensing materials: a comprehensive overview on bridging laboratory set-up to industry

Owing to the unique structural characteristics as well as outstanding physio-chemical and electrical properties, graphene enables significant enhancement with the performance of electrospun nanofibers, leading to the generation of promising applications in electrospun-mediated sensor technologies. Electrospinning is a simple, cost-effective, and versatile technique relying on electrostatic repulsion between the surface charges to continuously synthesize various scalable assemblies from a wide array of raw materials with diameters down to few nanometers. Recently, electrospun nanocomposites have emerged as promising substrates with a great potential for constructing nanoscale biosensors due to their exceptional functional characteristics such as complex pore structures, high surface area, high catalytic and electron transfer, controllable surface conformation and modification, superior electric conductivity and unique mat structure. This review comprehends graphene-based nanomaterials (GNMs) (graphene, graphene oxide (GO), reduced GO and graphene quantum dots) impregnated electrospun polymer composites for the electro-device developments, which bridges the laboratory set-up to the industry. Different techniques in the base polymers (pre-processing methods) and surface modification methods (post-processing methods) to impregnate GNMs within electrospun polymer nanofibers are critically discussed. The performance and the usage as the electrochemical biosensors for the detection of wide range analytes are further elaborated. This overview catches a great interest and inspires various new opportunities across a wide range of disciplines and designs of miniaturized point-of-care devices.

Facile and efficient preparation of high-quality black phosphorus quantum dot films for sensing applications

In this study, black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) are synthesized by improved ultrasonic-assisted liquid exfoliation. The as-prepared BPQDs are deposited on large-area conductive substrates by electrophoretic deposition, and exhibit high-sensitivity humidity sensing and excellent electrical properties. The results offer not only a facile and efficient method to synthesise stable BPQDs films, but also a new opportunity to develop humidity sensors and nano-electronic devices.

In this study, black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) are synthesized by improved ultrasonic-assisted liquid exfoliation.

Black Phosphorus Nanosheets: Synthesis, Characterization and Applications

Black phosphorus (BP) is an emerging two-dimensional (2D) material with a natural bandgap, which has unique anisotropy and extraordinary physical properties. Due to its puckered structure, BP exhibits strong in-plane anisotropy unlike other layered materials. The bandgap tunability of BP enables a wide range of ultrafast electronics and high frequency optoelectronic applications ranging from telecommunications to thermal imaging covering the nearly entire electromagnetic spectrum, whereas no other 2D material has this functionality. Here, recent advances in the synthesis, fabrication, anisotropic physical properties, and BP-based devices including field effect transistors (FETs) and photodetectors, are discussed. Recent passivation approaches to address the degradation of BP, which is one of the main challenges to bring this material into real world applications, are also introduced. Finally, a comment is made on the recent developments in other emerging applications, future outlook and challenges ahead in BP research.

Hexagonal Boron Nitride-Graphene Heterostructures: Synthesis and Interfacial Properties

Research on in-plane and vertically-stacked heterostructures of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) have attracted intense attentions for energy band engineering and device performance optimization of graphene. In this review article, recent advances in the controlled syntheses, interfacial structures, and electronic properties, as well as novel device constructions of h-BN and graphene heterostructures are highlighted. Firstly, diverse synthesis approaches for in-plane h-BN and graphene (h-BN-G) heterostructures are reviewed, and their applications in nanoelectronics are briefly introduced. Moreover, the interfacial structures and electronic properties of h-BN-G heterojunctions are discussed, and a zigzag type interface is found to preferentially evolve at the linking edge of the two structural analogues. Secondly, several synthetic routes for the vertically-stacked graphene/h-BN (G/h-BN) heterostructures are also reviewed. The role of h-BN as perfect dielectric layers in promoting the device performance of graphene is presented. Finally, future research directions in the synthesis and application of such heterostructures are discussed.

What are the active carbon species during graphene chemical vapor deposition growth?

The dissociation of carbon feedstock is a crucial step for understanding the mechanism of graphene chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth. Using first-principles calculations, we performed a comprehensive theoretical study for the population of various active carbon species, including carbon monomers and various radicals, CHi (i = 1, 2, 3, 4), on four representative transition-metal surfaces, Cu(111), Ni(111), Ir(111) and Rh(111), under different experimental conditions. On the Cu surface, which is less active, the population of CH and C monomers at the subsurface is found to be very high and thus they are the most important precursors for graphene CVD growth. On the Ni surface, which is more active than Cu, C monomers at the subsurface dominate graphene CVD growth under most experimental conditions. In contrast, on the active Ir and Rh surfaces, C monomers on the surfaces are found to be very stable and thus are the main precursors for graphene growth. This study shows that the mechanism of graphene CVD growth depends on the activity of catalyst surfaces and the detailed graphene growth process at the atomic level can be controlled by varying the temperature or partial pressure of hydrogen.

Controllable synthesis of graphene using novel aromatic 1,3,5-triethynylbenzene molecules on Rh(111)

1,3,5-Triethynylbenzene is selected as carbon precursor for graphene synthesis on Rh(111). The temperature-programmed annealing and direct annealing growth pathways are designed to synthesize high-quality graphene.

High-quality monolayer graphene synthesis on Pd foils via the suppression of multilayer growth at grain boundaries

The segregation of carbon from metals in which carbon is highly soluble, such as Ni (≈1.1 atom% at 1000 °C), is a typical method for graphene growth; this method differs from the surface-catalyzed growth of graphene that occurs on other metals such as Cu (<0.04 atom%). It has not been established whether strictly monolayer graphene could be synthesized through the traditional chemical vapor deposition route on metals where carbon is highly soluble, such as Pd (≈3.5 atom%). In this work, this issue is investigated by suppressing the grain boundary segregation using a pretreatment comprising the annealing of the Pd foils; this method was motivated by the fact that the typical thick growths at the grain boundaries revealed that the grain boundary functions as the main segregation channel in polycrystalline metals. To evaluate the high crystallinity of the as-grown graphene, detailed atomic-scale characterization with scanning tunneling microscopy is performed.