Unveiling the Direct Correlation between the CVD-Grown Graphene and the Growth Template

Abstract

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is known to produce continuous, large-area graphene sheet with decent physical properties. In the CVD process, catalytic metal substrates are typically used as the growth template, and copper has been adopted as the representative material platform due to its low carbon solubility and resulting monolayer graphene growth capability. For the widespread industrial applications of graphene, achieving the high-quality is essential. Several factors affect the qualities of CVD-grown graphene, such as pressure, temperature, carbon precursors, or growth template. In this work, we provide detailed analysis on the direct relation between the metallic growth substrate (copper) and overall properties of the resulting CVD-grown graphene. The surface morphology of copper substrate was modulated via simple chemical treatments, and its effect on physical, optical, and electrical properties of graphene was analyzed. Based on these results, we propose a simple synthesis route to produce high-quality, continuous, monolayer graphene sheet, which can facilitate the commercialization of CVD graphene into reality