Oil boundary approach for sublimation enabled camphor mediated graphene transfer

Bananakere Nanjegowda Chandrashekar; Nianduo Cai; Louis W Y Liu; Ankanahalli Shankaregowda Smitha; Zefei Wu; Pengcheng Chen; Run Shi; Weijun Wang; Jingwei Wang; Chunmei Tang; Chun Cheng

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.03.053

Oil boundary approach for sublimation enabled camphor mediated graphene transfer

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2019 Jun 15:546:11-19. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.03.053. Epub 2019 Mar 16.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanoimprint Technology, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, PR China.
² EEIT Department, Vietnamese German University, Le Lai Street, Hoa Phu Ward, Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanoimprint Technology, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, PR China; Department of Physics, and Center for 1D/2D Quantum Materials, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
⁴ College of Science, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210098, PR China.
⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Nanoimprint Technology, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, PR China. Electronic address: chengc@sustech.edu.cn.

PMID: 30901688
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.03.053

Abstract

Hypothesis: Transfer of chemical-vapor-deposition (CVD) grown monolayer graphene from one substrate to another requires a transfer agent. The transfer agent usually needs to be removed by washing with organic solvent such as acetone or high temperature annealing, which is harmful to the structure integrity and intrinsic property of a graphene film. Here, we propose the use of camphor as a transfer agent to transfer monolayer graphene onto a target dielectric substrate, which bypasses these demanding steps and only needs the common alcohol solvent rinsing.

Experiments: To facilitate a crack-free graphene transfer, the proposed approach allows the camphor supported polycrystalline graphene to be rationally fastened with a thickened and solidified edge bead (i.e. camphor oil-filled boundary). A layer of camphor was first deposited onto a graphene/copper surface. The backside copper substrate was then etched away, whilst the camphor/graphene bilayer was placed onto a SiO₂/Si substrate. Finally, the camphor remaining on the camphor/graphene/SiO₂/Si sublimed into a vapor. The graphene/SiO₂ stack was then examined by microscopic, spectral and electrical characterization.

Findings: The results of our examination suggest that the proposed method can guarantee a clean and damage-free graphene transfer. This method is particularly attractive in the application area for nano/micro-electronics, where it provides CVD-grown graphene the ability to be used on wide varieties of substrates that are sensitive to organic solvents and high temperature.

Keywords: Camphor; Chemical vapor deposition; Graphene; Oil-filled boundary; Sublimation; Transfer.