Due to its superior properties and band structure, graphene has become one of the most attractive materials of last decades. Among a variety of methods developed to synthesize graphene, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) appears to be the most efficient method for producing high quality and large area graphene, which is desirable for the real world applications. In CVD, graphene is synthesized on a metallic catalyst surface, which is mostly copper or nickel. Therefore, it is necessary to transfer graphene from the catalyst surface to the surface to be used in practice, which is the most challenging part in reality. While almost perfect quality graphene synthesis is possible on a suitable catalyst surface, the same perfection cannot be preserved during tedious classical wet transfer protocols. Improving the transfer process of graphene is the important part of the current literature related to CVD graphene studies. In this study, an innovative approach for graphene transfer was developed. In this approach, graphene on copper surface was be transferred to the desired substrate surface via pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) nanocoatings deposited by initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) technique.<br/>PSA is a kind of adhesive, which is the sticky part of adhesive tapes that are used frequently in daily life. In this work, it is the first time that PSAs, which is composed of copolymers of 2-ethylcyclohexyl acrylate and acrylic acid, was deposited on a substrate material by iCVD for the purpose of graphene transfer. Being a dry and room temperature process, iCVD provided uniform and conformal coatings on different substrates including glass, PET sheet, and even paper. A thin film of PSA deposited on the substrate surface acted as a prime layer for effective, defect free and all dry transfer of graphene and made the as-coated surface ideal and robust during the graphene transfer process. The transferred graphene layer on the different surfaces showed high conductivity values, even on the flexible substrates after repeated folding and flattening cycles. The method outlined in this study has the potential to offer the mass production of CVD graphene, and integration of it into large scale applications.

Pressure sensitive nano-adhesive films through chemical vapor deposition : A novel tool for the transfer of large-area graphene

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.