Issue 46, 2011

GrapheneCVD growth on copper and nickel: role of hydrogen in kinetics and structure

Abstract

Understanding the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) kinetics of graphene growth is important for advancing graphene processing and achieving better control of graphene thickness and properties. In the perspective of improving large area graphene quality, we have investigated in real-time the CVD kinetics using CH4–H2 precursors on both polycrystalline copper and nickel. We highlighted the role of hydrogen in differentiating the growth kinetics and thickness of graphene on copper and nickel. Specifically, the growth kinetics and mechanism is framed in the competitive dissociative chemisorption of H2 and dehydrogenating chemisorption of CH4, and in the competition of the in-diffusion of carbon and hydrogen, being hydrogen in-diffusion faster in copper than nickel, while carbon diffusion is faster in nickel than copper. It is shown that hydrogen acts as an inhibitor for the CH4 dehydrogenation on copper, contributing to suppress deposition onto the copper substrate, and degrades quality of graphene. Additionally, the evidence of the role of hydrogen in forming C–H out of plane defects in CVD graphene on Cu is also provided. Conversely, resurfacing recombination of hydrogen aids CH4 decomposition in the case of Ni. Understanding better and providing other elements to the kinetics of graphene growth is helpful to define the optimal CH4/H2 ratio, which ultimately can contribute to improve graphene layer thickness uniformity even on polycrystalline substrates.

Graphical abstract: Graphene CVD growth on copper and nickel: role of hydrogen in kinetics and structure

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 Jul 2011
Accepted
27 Sep 2011
First published
17 Oct 2011

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011,13, 20836-20843

Graphene CVD growth on copper and nickel: role of hydrogen in kinetics and structure

M. Losurdo, M. M. Giangregorio, P. Capezzuto and G. Bruno, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 20836 DOI: 10.1039/C1CP22347J

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