Synthesis of transfer-free graphene by solid phase reaction process in presence of a carbon diffusion barrier

• Synthesis of a transfer-free monolayer graphene by solid phase reaction approach.
• Use of block co-polymer (EOnPOmEOn) with long carbon chain as carbon source.
• NiO as effective diffusion barrier for graphene synthesis on SiO2/Si substrate.
• Effect of carbon diffusion, polymer thickness and annealing on graphene growth.

Synthesis of transfer-free high quality graphene on an arbitrary substrate by metal assisted graphitization with control carbon diffusion process has lot of significance for device applications. Here, we demonstrate the synthesis of monolayer graphene using common triblock co-polymer (EOnPOmEOn) as carbon source by solid phase reaction. In the synthesis process, we used Ni and NiO thin film as catalyst and carbon diffusion barrier, respectively on the top of polymer deposited SiO2/Si substrate. The long carbon chain of triblock co-polymer pluronic F127(EO106PO70EO106) can be graphitized in presence of Ni layer, where carbon diffusion to the top surface is controlled by NiO thin layer. The effects of carbon diffusion, thickness of polymer layer and annealing process are studied to obtain high quality monolayer graphene. Our findings reveal that the NiO/Ni stacked, thickness of polymer layer and reaction process in H2 atmosphere strongly influence the quality of synthesized graphene.

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