Atmospheric pressure plasma treatment on graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition

• We construct atmospheric pressure plasma jet system for surface treatment.
• The hydrophobic graphene surface changes to hydrophilic after ammonia plasma treatment.
• Hydroxyl and carboxyl groups are pronounced after the plasma treatment.
• The pyridinic nitrogen was significantly enhanced after the plasma treatment.
• The atmospheric plasma treatment allows charge doping on graphene surface.

We demonstrate the surface treatment of graphene using an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) system. The graphene was synthesized by a thermal chemical vapor deposition with methane gas. A Mo foil and a SiO2 wafer covered by Ni films were employed to synthesize monolayer and mixed-layered graphene, respectively. The home-built APPJ system was ignited using nitrogen gas to functionalize the graphene surface, and we studied the effect of different treatment times and interdistance between the plasma jet and the graphene surface. After the APPJ treatment, the hydrophobic character of graphene surface changed to hydrophilic. We found that the change is due to the formation of functionalities such as hydroxyl and carboxyl groups. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the nitrogen plasma treatment induced charge doping on graphene, and the pyridinic nitrogen component in the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy spectrum was significantly enhanced. We conclude that the atmospheric pressure plasma treatment enables controlling the graphene properties without introducing surface defects.