Scalable and Versatile Transfer of Sensitive Two-dimensional Materials

Abstract

Damage-free transfer of large-area two-dimensional (2D) materials is indispensable to unleash their full potentials in a wide range of electronic, photonic, and biochemical applications. However, the all-surface nature of 2D materials renders many of them vulnerable to surrounding environments, especially etchants and water involved during wet transfer process. Up to now, a scalable and damage-free transfer method for sensitive 2D materials is still lacking. Here, we report a general damage-free transfer method for sensitive 2D materials. The as-transferred 2D materials exhibit well-preserved structural integrity and unaltered physical properties. We further develop a facile TEM sample preparation technique that allows direct recycling of materials on TEM grids with high fidelity. This recycling technique provides an unprecedented opportunity to precisely relate structural characterization with physical/chemical/electrical probing for the same samples. This method can be readily generalized to diverse nanomaterials for large-area damage-free transfer and enables in-depth investigation of structure−property relationship.

Substrate engineering for wafer-scale two-dimensional material growth: strategies, mechanisms, and perspectives

“…Additionally, wet transfer typically requires an etchant or water to separate films from substrates, which introduces impurities and degrades crystal quality. 34,116 Therefore, it is desirable to develop methods for growing 2D materials directly on target substrates. The step guide strategy is an effective method to grow wafer-scale 2D materials on insulating substrates (Table 1).…”

Clean Transfer of Two-Dimensional Materials: A Comprehensive Review

“…Other polymers such as poly­(bisphenol A carbonate) (PC), , poly­( l -lactic acid) (PLLA), l -lactide-ε-caprolactone copolymer (PLC), cellulose acetate, , Teflon AF1600, polypropylene carbonate (PPC), Formvar, and even commercial liquid bandage (acrylate terpolymer) or nail polish have also been used as supporting materials to transfer 2D materials and show encouraging results. However, although most of those clean transfer methods assisted by these polymers show great promise in clean transfer of 2D materials, they are not truly contamination-free as some of them claimed: a small amount of polymer residues remains on 2D materials as long as polymers are involved in the transfer process due to their long molecular chain.…”

Strategy for transferring van der Waals materials and heterostructures

“…This green transfer method can be applied to transfer other 2D materials grown on f -mica or SiO 2 /Si growth substrates. It can also be modified for transferring air-sensitive or water-sensitive 2D flakes, such as BP and MoTe 2 , by adopting a glovebox or replacing the water with organic solvents like ethanol [117]. In this approach, polyvinyl formal (Formvar) is used as the supporting holder, while the immersing solution is substituted by ethylene glycol.…”