Postech Academy-industry Foundation

Center for Advanced Soft Electronics

Min Seok Yoo

Kilwon Cho

Hyo Chan Lee

Disclosed is a method of synthesizing graphene, wherein a Cu&#x2014;Ni thin film laminate including a copper thin film and a nickel thin film formed thereon is placed in a chemical vapor depositor, brought into contact with a graphene precursor and subjected to chemical vapor deposition (CVD), thus synthesizing thickness-controlled graphene on the copper thin film, whereby the thickness of multilayer graphene can be easily and reproducibly controlled by adjusting only nickel thickness and CVD time, and a process window for obtaining reproducible results can be widened due to self-limiting properties whereby the maximum thickness of graphene is obtained after a certain synthesis time due to the thickness-controlled nickel thin film. Also, carbon atoms absorbed to the nickel thin film reach the copper thin film opposite thereto through internal diffusion of the metal laminate to thus grow graphene via surface-mediated reaction thereon, thereby improving the uniformity of synthesized graphene.

Method of synthesizing thickness-controlled graphene through chemical vapor deposition using Cu&#x2014;Ni thin film laminate

Disclosed is a method of manufacturing multilayer graphene, including (a) contacting of a metal substrate with a nonmetal element, (b) reduction through heat treatment, and (c) chemical vapor deposition of a graphene precursor on the metal substrate containing the nonmetal element dissolved therein, thereby manufacturing multilayer graphene that is doped with the nonmetal element on the metal substrate. In the multilayer graphene thus manufactured, the number of graphene layers and the work function are simultaneously adjusted by controlling the concentration of doped nonmetal element in a thickness direction of graphene through interactions related to the reduction of the nonmetal element dissolved in a copper catalyst and the growth of graphene, and moreover, the stacking structure of graphene is maintained and the optoelectronic properties of multilayer graphene can be controlled by simultaneously regulating graphene growth and doping during the synthesis procedure without additional processing.

Growing community of inventors

Pohang-si, South Korea

Min Seok Yoo