Recently, Liu Kaihui and other members of the research team led by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Academician Yu Dapeng achieved a breakthrough in increasing the growth rate of large-area single-crystal graphene. Other researchers, including Wang Enge from Beijing Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, also participated in the research. The finding of the research was published in Nature Nanotechnology on August 8, 2016.

Inspired by 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics, the study of graphene, a typical quantum material, has become an important research orientation in condensed matter physics and attracted great attention from the industrial sector home and abroad. For example, the European Union has launched its Graphene EU Flagship project. America, Japan and South Korea have increased investment in basic research on the application of graphene. China has established a graphene union based on local graphene research associations. At present, there are about ten thousand companies that focus on grapheme and its application worldwide. Although graphene has been applied to new energy and new material technology, little progress has been made in its application to high end photovoltaic devices. That’s mainly because it is difficult to get large-area single-crystal graphene. As the normal growth rate of graphene is less than 0.4 μm/s, it takes several days to grow wafer-scale single-crystal graphene.

Through decomposing methane gas at 1000 degree Celsius by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), Liu Kaihui together with his graduate students and fellow researchers accelerated the growth of graphene on copper by 150 times, reaching 60 μm/s. The study proves that oxide substrate can supply oxygen continuously to the surface of the copper catalyst during the CVD growth, which significantly lowers the energy barrier to the decomposition of the carbon feedstock and increases the growth rate of graphene. This study provides the necessary scientific basis for the controllable and fast growth of large single-crystal graphene, which has great scientific and technological significance.

The finding of the research was published on Nature Nanotechnology on August 8, 2016, with Xu Xiaozhi as the lead author, Liu Kaihui, Prof. Ding Feng and Prof. Peng Hailin as joint authors, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Wuhan University and SUSTech as collaborative units.

Left: Growth of graphene on Cu foils assisted by a continuous oxygen supply. The growth rate of single domain grapheme is 60 μm/s.

Right: Previous growth rates of grapheme

Link for the article: http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2016.132.html