Phosphorus doped graphene by inductively coupled plasma and triphenylphosphine treatments

•Substitution doping is a promising method for opening the energy band gap of graphene.•Substitution doping with phosphorus in the graphene lattice has numerous advantage such as high band gap, low formation energy, and high net charge density compared to nitrogen.•Vdirac of Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and triphenylphosphine (TPP) treated graphene was −57 V, which provided clear evidence of n-type doping.•Substitutional doping of graphene with phosphorus is verified by the XPS spectra of P 2p core level and EELS mapping of phosphorus.•The chemical bonding between P and graphene is very stable for a long time in air (2 months).

Graphene is considered a host material for various applications in next-generation electronic devices. However, despite its excellent properties, one of the most important issues to be solved as an electronic material is the creation of an energy band gap. Substitution doping is a promising method for opening the energy band gap of graphene. Herein, we demonstrate the substitutional doping of graphene with phosphorus using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and triphenylphosphine (TPP) treatments. The electrical transfer characteristics of the phosphorus doped graphene field effect transistor (GFET) have a Vdirac of ∼ − 54 V. The chemical bonding between P and C was clearly observed in XPS spectra, and uniform distribution of phosphorus within graphene domains was confirmed by EELS mapping. The capability for substitutional doping of graphene with phosphorus can significantly promote the development of graphene based electronic devices.

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