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The new research published in the journal "Materials Chemistry" aims to overcome the challenges of mass production of two-dimensional materials by introducing a new graphene nucleation and growth method.
Research: Self-assembly of graphene arrays on liquid copper-silver alloys. Image Credit: Rost9/Shutterstock.com
Due to its unique properties and potential for applications in a wide range of industries, graphene has attracted much attention since it was discovered in 2004. In addition, other self-assembled two-dimensional materials with perfect atomic plane structures have also attracted people's interest.
However, the problems encountered in the manufacture of large-scale two-dimensional crystal arrays, such as the precise operation of nucleation, limit the industrial-scale production of two-dimensional materials. Now, a group of researchers in China recently demonstrated a successful method for precisely designing graphene nucleation and growth using liquid Cu-Ag (copper and silver) alloy as a catalyst.
The team believes that their method shows good potential for high-quality growth of graphene arrays on liquid alloys, and can break new ground in industrial production and commercial applications.
Taking graphene as an example and a starting point for research, the team led by Lin Li, Dechao Geng, and Wenping Hu is seeking an effective method to overcome the difficulties currently encountered when trying to design and grow two-dimensional materials.
Graphene arrays especially have excellent application potential, and can be used as barrier-free conductive interconnects in electronic circuits. Graphene can also add its unique characteristics to integrate electronic devices, such as photodetectors.
Other potential uses of graphene include applications in medicine and biotechnology, ultra-sensitive sensors, multifunctional composite materials and coatings, membranes, energy harvesting and storage, and even wearable and ultra-high-speed electronic devices.
Read more: Liquid crystals with carbon nanotubes for photovoltaic applications
Like other two-dimensional materials, including single-layer materials such as MXenes, phosphorene, bismuthene, etc., graphene is known for its outstanding physical and chemical properties, which have had a significant impact on the progress of various nanotechnologies. Therefore, the development of new production methods for such materials will have a wide-ranging impact on the entire industry.
Generally, two main strategies have been developed for the growth of two-dimensional materials, one of which involves reducing nucleation, but this is a time-consuming process and an extremely time-consuming method.
The second multi-speed method is much faster, but requires a series of complex surface treatment steps and includes a single crystal metal substrate, which can be expensive. However, the Chinese team chose the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, which uses a catalyst to shape 2D materials.
Previously, the use of catalysts in the synthesis of graphene has been explored, but it shows some limitations. “Traditional catalysts face huge challenges in achieving the growth of highly uniform and high-quality self-assembled two-dimensional materials,” said co-author Professor Wenping Hu Researcher of the Department of Chemistry, Tianjin University.
However, due to the excellent performance shown by the combination of different metals (such as solid Cu-Ag alloys), the use of alloy catalysts has proven to be more successful in the synthesis of highly oriented single-layer graphene.
In addition, by controlling the surface engineering of the alloy catalyst and reducing the cost, a variety of sub-growths belonging to the second method can be realized.
Professor Wenping Hu, co-author, researcher of the Department of Chemistry, Tianjin University
However, the Chinese team was able to go further and successfully demonstrated for the first time that when using liquid copper-silver alloy catalysts, the CVD method showed great potential in terms of the controllability of graphene's size layer, crystallinity and morphology.
To characterize their results, the team obtained optical images by applying scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and Raman spectroscopy. They found that the graphene array exhibited excellent uniformity and excellent quality.
"With the introduction of the liquid copper-silver alloy, the precise engineering of the nucleation and growth of graphene has been achieved. In addition, by appropriately adjusting the composition of the Cu-Ag alloy, the shape evolution of the graphene single crystal has also been detected, resulting in roundness. Controllable formation of shaped graphene arrays,” Hu explained.
In addition, the theoretical calculations and measurements put forward in the entire study also proved that the method is highly consistent with the experimental results. Therefore, thanks to Hu and his team, large-scale and effective precision engineering of two-dimensional materials (including graphene) will soon become a reality.
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David is an academic researcher and interdisciplinary artist. David's current research explores how science and technology, especially the Internet and artificial intelligence, can be put into practice to influence a new shift towards utopianism and the reemergence of commons theory.
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