A cheaper graphene synthesis method

Scientists at the CSIC have developed a new method for the direct growth of graphene on dielectric substrates, avoiding the step of transferring the graphene from the copper catalyst substrates to the substrates of practical interest, as silicon or glass, avoiding therefore the economical cost. It is a scalable and reproducible method to use graphene in multiple applications.

Atomic force microscopy images of isolated graphene crystals directly grown on glass (CSIC).Currently, large-area high-quality, polycrystalline and single crystalline graphene are now being grown by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) on copper with promising results for many applications.

However, this method requires a subsequent transference of graphene to functional substrates, and the underlying metal has to be removed. The process requires high energy consumption (temperatures of 1000 ° C),

With the patented technology, graphene film is manufactured catalyst-free, by using a remote electron cyclotron plasma assisted chemical vapour deposition technique (r-ECR-CVD) at low temperature, below 700ºC, during the whole process.

This easily scalable method avoids the graphene transference and allows deposits the graphene itself as a film on a substrate. As this method does not require the use of metal catalyst, damages and costs of the transference process of graphene are avoided.

The grain size of the resulting graphene film can be controlled in the range of 10 nanometres to 400 nanometres for isolated crystals and over 500 nanometres in continuous films. Graphene films are obtained directly on different substrates: dielectrics, metal, semiconductor... The obtained material currently exhibit medium conductivity (900Ω• sq-1) keeping high transparency (>92%).

The material is suitable for “non-ultra high quality” applications; catalysis, transparent conductors as touch screens or smart windows, coatings and thin films with engineered features as hydrophobicity, antireflection, antibacterial activity, corrosion resistance... Applications in chemical sensors or nanoelectronics are also expected.

Contact:

Marisa Carrascoso Arranz
Deputy Vice-Presidency
for Knowledge Transfer, CSIC
Tel.: + 34 – 915 681 533
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