EAGER: Templated Manufacturing of Graphene

这项早期概念探索性研究奖助金为在各种衬底上低温定向合成石墨烯和石墨烯纳米结构的材料和方法的开发提供了资金。石墨烯是一种非常有前途的新型有机电子材料，它的导电性远远超过当今S消费电子设备中的主要半导体材料硅。然而，目前用于石墨烯生长的高温工艺阻碍了石墨烯与电子器件材料和工艺的集成。提出了一种低温生长石墨烯的新方法，包括使用芳香族先驱体来制备石墨烯。将开发以受控方式将这些前体沉积到表面的工艺，以及将前体涂层低温转化为石墨烯的工艺。将测试三种主要方法来开发这种石墨烯前体和加工方法。一种是基于溶液的方法，另一种是依靠表面反应层来捕获前体，第三种方法将探索剥离石墨烯的受控沉积。一系列的方法将被用来表征这种工艺产生的石墨烯和石墨烯材料的质量和性质。如果成功，这项研究的结果将导致在各种衬底上低温沉积和形成石墨烯的新方法。这项工作的主要目标是建立这种低温形成石墨烯的方法的可行性，以便石墨烯可以更广泛和容易地集成到各种光电应用中，这些应用目前在高温石墨烯合成工艺中是不现实的。这种将石墨烯集成到电子设备中的做法可以实现许多进步，包括：更好的光学探测器与CMOS集成，更快的灵活有机电子器件，以及更快的计算机处理器，更低的散热和更低的功耗。

This EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) grant provides funding for developing materials and methods for the low temperature, directed synthesis of graphene and graphene nanostructures on a variety of substrates. Graphene is a very promising new organic electronic material that can possess conductivity much greater than silicon, the primary semiconductor material in today?s consumer electronic devices. However, the high temperature processes used today for graphene growth hinder the integration of graphene into electronic device materials and processes. A novel approach for low temperature graphene growth is proposed here and involves the use of aromatic precursors for graphene. Processes for depositing those precursors in a well controlled manner onto surfaces will be developed as well as processes for the low temperature conversion of the precursor coatings to graphene. Three primary approaches will be tested for developing such graphene precursor and processing approaches. One is a solution-based approach, another relies on surface reactive layers to capture the precursors and the third will explore the controlled deposition of exfoliated graphene. A range of methods will be utilized to characterize the quality and properties of the graphene and graphitic materials that result from such processes.If successful, the results of this research will lead to new methods for the low temperature deposition and formation of graphene on a variety of substrates. The primary goal of this work is to establish the feasibility of such approaches to low temperature graphene formation, such that graphene could be more widely and easily integrated into a variety of optoelectronic applications that are currently impractical with present high temperature graphene synthesis procedures. Such integration of graphene into electronic devices could enable a number of advancements including: better optical detectors integrated with CMOS, faster flexible organic electronic devices, and faster computer processors with lower heat dissipation and lower power consumption.