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.
