| Title | The Mechanism of Graphene Vapor-Solid Growth on Insulating Substrates |
| Authors | Cheng, Ting Liu, Zhirong Liu, Zhongfan Ding, Feng |
| Affiliation | Peking Univ, Acad Adv Interdisciplinary Studies, Coll Chem & Mol Engn, Ctr Nanochem,Beijing Natl Lab Mol Sci, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China Beijing Graphene Inst, Beijing 100095, Peoples R China Inst Basic Sci, Ctr Multidimens Carbon Mat, Ulsan 44919, South Korea Ulsan Natl Inst Sci & Technol, Sch Mat Sci & Engn, Ulsan 44919, South Korea |
| Keywords | SINGLE-CRYSTAL GRAPHENE HEXAGONAL BORON-NITRIDE GAS-PHASE DYNAMICS DEPOSITION FILMS SAPPHIRE DOMAINS KINETICS |
| Issue Date | 27-Apr-2021 |
| Publisher | ACS NANO |
| Abstract | Wafer-scale single-crystal graphene film directly grown on insulating substrates via the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method is desired for building high-performance graphene-based devices. In comparison with the well-studied mechanism of graphene growth on transition metal substrates, the lack of understanding on the mechanism of graphene growth on insulating surfaces greatly hinders the progress. Here, by using first-principles calculation, we systematically explored the absorption of various carbon species CHx (x = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) on three typical insulating substrates [h-BN, sapphire, and quartz] and reveal that graphene growth on an insulating surface is dominated by the reaction of active carbon species with the hydrogen-passivated graphene edges and thus is less sensitive to the type of the substrate. The dominating gas phase precursor, CH3, plays two key roles in graphene CVD growth on an insulating substrate: (i) to feed the graphene growth and (ii) to remove excessive hydrogen atoms from the edge of graphene. The threshold reaction barriers for the growth of graphene armchair (AC) and zigzag (ZZ) edges were calculated as 3.00 and 1.94 eV, respectively; thus the ZZ edge grows faster than the AC one. Our theory successfully explained why the circumference of a graphene island grown on insulating substrates is generally dominated by AC edges, which is a long-standing puzzle of graphene growth. In addition, the very slow graphene growth rate on an insulating substrate is calculated and agrees well with existing experimental observations. The comprehensive insights on the graphene growth on insulating surfaces at the atomic scale provide guidance on the experimental design for high-quality graphene growth on insulating substrates. |
| URI | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/613053 |
| ISSN | 1936-0851 |
| DOI | 10.1021/acsnano.1c00776 |
| Indexed | SCI(E) |
| Appears in Collections: | 前沿交叉学科研究院 |
