Open AccessThe pre-treatment of copper for graphene synthesis
Author(s) -
Lang Wang,
Feng Wei,
Li Yang,
Jianhua Zhang
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
wuli xuebao
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 47
ISSN - 1000-3290
DOI - 10.7498/aps.63.176801
Subject(s) - graphene , copper , materials science , etching (microfabrication) , chemical vapor deposition , polishing , nanotechnology , foil method , monolayer , chemical engineering , metallurgy , layer (electronics) , composite material , engineering
Graphene synthesis by chemical-vapor-deposition (CVD) has attracted great interest. As the substrates for graphene growth, copper has become a common choice because its capacity could produce high-quality and uniform monolayer graphene. Morphology and surface conditions of the copper foil have great influence on the quality of the graphene grown on it. Here we report a rapid and effective copper pre-treatment method to improve the quality of graphene. After a pre-etching in 1 mol/L Fe(NO3)3 aqueous solutions for 90 s, the quality of the copper foil surface has been improved. Compared with the HCl treatment and electro-chemical polishing, Fe(NO3)3 pre-etching can generate a better result and has been verified to have general applicability for different types of copper foils.