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Copper oxide as a “self-cleaning” substrate for graphene growth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2014

Carl W. Magnuson ,
Xianghua Kong ,
Hengxing Ji ,
Cheng Tan ,
Huifeng Li ,
Richard Piner ,
Carl A. Ventrice Jr.  and
Rodney S. Ruoff
Carl W. Magnuson
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Program, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
Xianghua Kong
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Program, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
Hengxing Ji
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Program, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712; and Department of Materials Science and Engineering and CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230036, China
Cheng Tan
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Program, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
Huifeng Li
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Program, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
Richard Piner
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Program, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
Carl A. Ventrice Jr.
Affiliation:
College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, University at Albany-SUNY, Albany, New York 12203
Rodney S. Ruoff*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Materials Science and Engineering Program, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712
*
c) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: r.ruoff@mail.utexas.edu
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Abstract

Commonly used techniques for cleaning copper substrates before graphene growth via chemical vapor deposition (CVD), such as rinsing with acetone, nitric, and acetic acid, and high temperature hydrogen annealing still leave residual adventitious carbon on the copper surface. This residual carbon promotes graphene nucleation and leads to higher nucleation density. We find that copper with an oxidized surface can act as a self-cleaning substrate for graphene growth by CVD. Under vacuum conditions, copper oxide thermally decomposes, releasing oxygen from the substrate surface. The released oxygen reacts with the carbon residues on the copper surface and forms volatile carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, leaving a clean copper surface free of carbon for large-area graphene growth. Using oxidized electropolished copper foil leads to a reduction in graphene nucleation density by over a factor of 1000 when compared to using chemically cleaned oxygen free copper foil.

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Type
Invited Papers
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 29 , Issue 3: Focus Issue: Graphene and Beyond , 14 February 2014 , pp. 403 - 409
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2014 

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