Kinetics of Graphene and 2D Materials Growth

Abstract

During the last 10 years, remarkable achievements on the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth of 2D materials have been made, but the understanding of the underlying mechanisms is still relatively limited. Here, the current progress on the understanding of the growth kinetics of 2D materials, especially for their CVD synthesis, is reviewed. In order to present a complete picture of 2D materials' growth kinetics, the following factors are discussed: i) two types of growth modes, namely attachment‐limited growth and diffusion‐limited growth; ii) the etching of 2D materials, which offers an additional degree of freedom for growth control; iii) a number of experimental factors in graphene CVD synthesis, such as structure of the substrate, pressure of hydrogen or oxygen, temperature, etc., which are found to have profound effects on the growth kinetics; iv) double‐layer and few‐layer 2D materials' growth, which has distinct features different from the growth of single‐layer 2D materials; and v) the growth of polycrystalline 2D materials by the coalescence of a few single crystalline domains. Finally, the current challenges and opportunities in future 2D materials' synthesis are summarized.

Scaling theory for two-dimensional single domain growth driven by attachment of diffusing adsorbates

“…These epitaxial films can be single crystals with low defect densities. High-quality large-area films can be produced by this method [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Although epitaxial growth has been widely used, the rational optimization of growth conditions is rather difficult because of various factors controlling the growth process [5,7].…”

Recent Advances in Chemical Functionalization of 2D Black Phosphorous Nanosheets

“…CVD is a well-established bottom up technique for fabricating large area layered materials. [136][137][138][139][140][141][142] Ji and co-workers have demonstrated an in situ CVD approach to fabricate BPNSs with a thickness of four layers and average areas of >3 µm 2 . In their method, amorphous red phosphorous (RP) thin film was first grown on a silicon substrate by heating RP powder or bulk BP at 600 °C.…”

“…[143] Similar method was reported by Xia and co-workers, RP film was thermally evaporated onto a flexible polyethylene terephthalate substrate and then converted into BP nanofilm under high pressure at room temperature ( Figure 2f). [135] Although CVD method has been successfully used to fabricate 2D nanomaterials including graphene, TMDs, and h-BN, [140,144,145] the progress for the synthesis of BPNSs using CVD approach is still in the early stage and more efforts are required to grow much thinner BPNSs. Another widely used bottom up method is the direct chemical synthesis of 2D materials from small precursors by hydrothermal, solvothermal, or templated synthesis methods.…”

Bilayer Graphene: From Stacking Order to Growth Mechanisms

“…Tian et al proposed that AB‐stacked bilayer graphene transistors have high output current density, and their intrinsic voltage gain is up to 77, which is many times higher than that of single‐layer graphene . In addition, it can be used to improve the on–off ratio of the spin valve in pseudo‐spin simulation and the response rate of the bolometer …”

“…[20] In addition, it can be used to improve the on-off ratio of the spin valve in pseudospin simulation [21,22] and the response rate of the bolometer. [23][24][25][26]…”