Ultrafast growth of nanocrystalline graphene films by quenching and grain-size-dependent strength and bandgap opening

Tong Zhao, Chuan Xu, Wei Ma, Zhibo Liu, Tianya Zhou, Zhen Liu, Shun Feng, Mengjian Zhu, Ning Kang, Dong-Ming Sun, Hui-Ming Cheng and Wencai Ren ()
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Tong Zhao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chuan Xu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wei Ma: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhibo Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tianya Zhou: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhen Liu: Peking University
Shun Feng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Mengjian Zhu: National University of Defense Technology
Ning Kang: Peking University
Dong-Ming Sun: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hui-Ming Cheng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wencai Ren: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Nanocrystallization is a well-known strategy to dramatically tune the properties of materials; however, the grain-size effect of graphene at the nanometer scale remains unknown experimentally because of the lack of nanocrystalline samples. Here we report an ultrafast growth of graphene films within a few seconds by quenching a hot metal foil in liquid carbon source. Using Pt foil and ethanol as examples, four kinds of nanocrystalline graphene films with average grain size of ~3.6, 5.8, 8.0, and 10.3 nm are synthesized. It is found that the effect of grain boundary becomes more pronounced at the nanometer scale. In comparison with pristine graphene, the 3.6 nm-grained film retains high strength (101 GPa) and Young’s modulus (576 GPa), whereas the electrical conductivity is declined by over 100 times, showing semiconducting behavior with a bandgap of ~50 meV. This liquid-phase precursor quenching method opens possibilities for ultrafast synthesis of typical graphene materials and other two-dimensional nanocrystalline materials.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12662-z

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