Low Temperature Growth of Graphene on Glass by Carbon-Enclosed Chemical Vapor Deposition Process and Its Application as Transparent Electrode

Abstract

A novel carbon-enclosed chemical vapor deposition (CE-CVD) to grow high quality monolayer graphene on Cu substrate at a low temperature of 500 °C was demonstrated. The quality of the grown graphene was investigated by Raman spectra, and the detailed growth mechanism of high quality graphene by the CE-CVD process was investigated in detail. In addition to growth of high quality monolayer graphene, a transparent hybrid few-layer graphene/CuNi mesh electrode directly synthesized by the CE-CVD process on a conventional glass substrate at the temperature of 500 °C was demonstrated, showing excellent electrical properties (∼5 Ω/□ @ 93.5% transparency) and ready to be used for optical applications without further transfer process. The few-layer graphene/CuNi mesh electrode shows no electrical degradation even after 2 h annealing in pure oxygen at an elevated temperature of ∼300 °C. Furthermore, the few-layer graphene/CuNi mesh electrode delivers an excellent corrosion resistance in highly corrosive solutions such as electroplating process and achieves a good nucleation rate for the deposited film. Findings suggest that the low temperature few-layer graphene/CuNi mesh electrode synthesized by the CE-CVD process is an excellent candidate to replace indium tin oxide (ITO) as transparent conductive material (TCM) in the next generation.

Graphene Glass from Direct CVD Routes: Production and Applications

“…Of particular note, graphene coating on glass should endow graphene/glass hybrid materials with versatile performance. As such, the integration of graphene with glass has long been expected to stimulate numerous applications, especially, in smart windows and transparent electronics …”

Thermal Growth of Graphene: A Review

“…To reduce energy consumption and deposit graphene directly on the electronic device, using low temperature to synthesize graphene has become a research hot spot. Various kinds of CVD methods, including hydrogen-free chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) [64], carbon-enclosed chemical vapor deposition (CECVD) [65], plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) [66], ultra-high vacuum chemical vapor deposition (UHVCVD) [67] and oxygen-free chemical vapor deposition (OFCVD) [68] method, are presented. Cho and Hong et al [64] tried to decrease the experimental temperature, however the temperature only reduced from 1000 • C to 970 • C. Jang et al [68] developed an oxygen-free chemical method which removed the oxygen and successfully used low activation energy benzene as carbon source to synthesize graphene on Cu foils at atmospheric pressure at 300 • C.…”

Hybridizing Plasmonic Materials with 2D‐Transition Metal Dichalcogenides toward Functional Applications

“…Intriguing changes in the properties of monolayer TMDs are induced by confining the charge carriers in two dimensions ( x ‐ and y ‐directions) and blocking the interactions in the z ‐direction. Thus, monoatomic‐layer TMDs have unique electronic,1,2 optical,3 and spintronic4,5 properties compared with their bulk counterparts, making them promising materials for a wide range of applications including electronics,6 catalysis,7,8 and photonics 9–14…”