Low-Temperature Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth of Graphene Layers on Copper Substrate Using Camphor Precursor

Abstract

A two-step, low-temperature thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, which uses camphor for synthesizing continuous graphene layer on Cu substrate is reported. The growth process was performed at lower temperature (800 °C) using camphor as the source of carbon. A threezone CVD system was used for controlled heating of precursor, in order to obtain uniform graphene layer. As-grown samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show the presence of 4–5 layers of graphene. As-grown graphene transferred onto a glass substrate through a polymer-free wet-etching process, demonstrated transmittance ~91% in visible spectra. This process of synthesizing large area, 4–5 layer graphene at reduced temperature represents an energy-efficient method of producing graphene for possible applications in opto-electronic industry.

Graphene‐Based Nanomaterials for Biomedical, Catalytic, and Energy Applications

“…The use of copper(Cu) as a collecting substrate gave the investigators better control over the number of layers of graphene sheets obtained as a result of the LT-CVD procedure, thereby making possible the tunable synthesis of high quality, large-scale graphene with low energy-cost. [25] In general, growth kinetics studies are extremely constructive in determining the nature of nucleation (homogeneous or heterogeneous) during the CVD process of graphene synthesis. Computational approaches like molecular dynamics simulations, kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) methods, etc., have provided important insights regarding chemical kinetics studies.…”

Synthesis of graphene: Potential carbon precursors and approaches

“…The graphene films were also not uniform with thicker regions found in some of the sections. A similar low-temperature CVD method resulted in the growth of a continuous layer of camphor-derived graphene on a copper substrate at 800°C [128]. The threezone CVD system allows controlled heating, which enables the formation of a uniform graphene layer.…”