Graphene Growth with Solid Precursor-Polyethylene

Abstract

Chemical vapor deposition method using CH4 gaseous hydrocarbons is generally used to synthesize large-area graphene. Studies using non-gaseous materials such as ethanol, hexane and camphor have occasionally been conducted. In this study, large-area graphene is synthesized via chemical vapor deposition using polyethylene as a carbon precursor. In particular, we used a poly glove, which is made of low-density polyethylene. The characteristics of the synthesized graphene as functions of the growth time of graphene and the temperature for vaporizing polyethylene are evaluated by optical microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. When the polyethylene vaporizing temperature is over 150 degrees C, large-area graphene with excellent quality is synthesized. Raman spectroscopy shows that the D peak intensity increased and the 2D peak intensity decreased with increasing growth time. The reason for this is that sp3 bonds in the graphene can form when the correct amount of carbon source is supplied. The quality of the graphene synthesized using polyethylene is similar to that of graphene synthesized using methane gas.