Effect of Substrate Characteristics on the Graphene Synthesis by Chemical Vapor Deposition Method

Graphene, a two dimensional monoatomic thick carbon allotrope, received world-wide interest since itsdiscovery in 2004, due to its exceptional properties. This interest has been translated into rapid progress in terms oflarge area deposition of graphene via a Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) method and its transfer ontodifferent types of substrates. In this work, the graphene layer was synthesized by a low pressure chemicalvapor deposition method using commercial copper foils as the catalytic substrate and methane gas as thehydrocarbon precursor. Then the synthesized graphene was transferred onto a SiO2/Si substrate with the aidof a polymeric supported wet transfer method. Two kinds of copper substrate with different purities were used.SEM, AFM and optical microscopy analysis was used to investigate the samples. The results showed that theupside of the Cu substrate was fully covered by graphene layer. But at the backside, the shortage of activecarbon species leads to creation of separated graphene domains. It was also reveals that impurities in Cusubstrate act as nucleation sites and increase the density of graphene domains.

Keywords:

Graphene Synthesis , Chemical Vapor Deposition , Copper Foil Purity , Graphene Domains