Large Single Crystals of Graphene on Melted Copper using Chemical Vapour Deposition

Yimin A. Wu1, Ye Fan1, Susannah Speller1, Graham L. Creeth2, Jerzy T. Sadowski3, Kuang He1, Alex W. Robertson1, Christopher S. Allen1, Jamie H. Warner1*

1Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PH, United Kingdom. 2School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom. 3Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA

Email*:Jamie.warner@materials.ox.ac.uk

Accepted ACS Nano

Abstract

A simple method is presented for synthesizing large single crystal graphene domains on melted copper using atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition (CVD). This is achieved by performing the reaction above the melting point of copper (1090 oC) and using a molybdenum or tungsten support to prevent balling of the copper from dewetting. By controlling the amount of hydrogen during growth, individual single crystal domains of monolayer graphene greater than 200 µm are produced within a continuous film. Stopping growth before a complete film is formed reveals individual hexagonal domains of graphene that are epitaxially aligned in their orientation. Angular resolved photoemission spectroscopy is used to show the graphene grown on copper exhibits a linear dispersion relationship and no sign of doping. HRTEM and electron diffraction reveal a uniform high quality crystalline atomic structure of monolayer graphene.