Rapid epitaxy-free graphene synthesis on silicidated polycrystalline platinum

Abstract

Large-area synthesis of high-quality graphene by chemical vapour deposition on metallic substrates requires polishing or substrate grain enlargement followed by a lengthy growth period. Here we demonstrate a novel substrate processing method for facile synthesis of mm-sized, single-crystal graphene by coating polycrystalline platinum foils with a silicon-containing film. The film reacts with platinum on heating, resulting in the formation of a liquid platinum silicide layer that screens the platinum lattice and fills topographic defects. This reduces the dependence on the surface properties of the catalytic substrate, improving the crystallinity, uniformity and size of graphene domains. At elevated temperatures growth rates of more than an order of magnitude higher (120 μm min−1) than typically reported are achieved, allowing savings in costs for consumable materials, energy and time. This generic technique paves the way for using a whole new range of eutectic substrates for the large-area synthesis of 2D materials.

A Peeling Approach for Integrated Manufacturing of Large Monolayer h-BN Crystals

“…33,34 Reported CVD h-BN domain sizes on Pt to date are typically only a few µm. 35,36 Much larger domain sizes have been reported for graphene CVD on Pt, 37 but in all cases 2DLM transfer relied on conventional electrochemical delamination.…”

Ultrafast epitaxial growth of metre-sized single-crystal graphene on industrial Cu foil

“…For most industrial-level devices (and other) applications, large single-crystal graphene (SCG) films are ideal for topdown processing. In the past 10 years, the SCG island size has increased more than four orders of magnitude, from micrometres to inches [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25].…”

“…There are two routes towards large SCG-(a) to allow only one graphene nucleus to grow into a large SCG film [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], or (b) to ‗seamlessly stitch' multiple aligned graphene islands into an SCG film [19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Recently, the synthesis of a 1.5-inch SCG was enabled by the local gas feeding technique, in which one nucleus only, grows [15].…”

The Way towards Ultrafast Growth of Single‐Crystal Graphene on Copper

“…The growth of large‐area high‐quality graphene films is fundamental for the upcoming graphene applications. Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) method offers good prospects to produce large‐size graphene films due to its simplicity, controllability and cost‐efficiency 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75. Many researches have verified that graphene can be catalytically grown on metallic substrates, like ruthenium (Ru),13, 14 iridium (Ir),15, 16 platinum (Pt),17, 18, …”

“…Besides, the graphene growth on Pt can also be realized by a surface‐mediated process and millimetre‐scale single‐crystal graphene domains can be obtained 19. A smart surface engineering of polycrystalline Pt by coating with silicon‐containing film makes the graphene growth free from the effects of Pt substrate which improves the crystallinity, uniformity and the domain size of graphene 20. With this eutectic substrate the growth rate was increased to 120 µm min −1 at 1150 °C, more than an order of magnitude higher than typical reported ones.…”