Nanotechnology researchers find reliable, mess-free way to grow graphene. from nanowerk
“You can imagine trying to peel a piece of shrink wrap off a dish to put it on a new dish — it’s going to be messy,” said lead researcher Jiwoong Park, Cornell assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology. Inspired by previous work in which scientists grew graphene on copper foil, the team grew the graphene directly onto silicon wafers coated with a special evaporated copper film. They then cut the graphene films into their desired shapes using such standard methods as photolithography, and removed the underlying copper with a chemical solution. What was left was a graphene film that draped down over the silicon wafer with little defect. “Once the graphene is made on top of this wafer, you can apply any thin-film processing technique,” Park said. The team is now experimenting with growing full-scale, four-inch graphene wafers, which would further demonstrate the manufacturing potential of graphene-based electronics.
One wonders if this could be combined with the recently invented surface-plasmon fluidic logic.
