Abstract

Incorporating dopants, such as boron, in graphene, is crucial for many applications in electrochemistry, sensors, photovoltaics, and catalysis. Many routes have been investigated for the preparation of B-doped graphene (BG) films, including chemical processes. A different way to obtain boron-doped layers to better control the concentration of boron in the doped graphene film, is pulsed laser co-ablation of C and B solid sources followed by rapid thermal heating of the B-doped carbon film deposited on a metal catalyst. Amorphous a-C:B films, containing 2 at. % boron, are synthetized by pulse laser deposition onto a nickel film catalyst. Rapid thermal annealing at 1100 °C leads to the formation of boron-doped graphene films, characterized by Raman, XPS, FEG-SEM, HRTEM and AFM. The results confirm the production of 1–4 layer boron doped graphene films, with a similar 2 at. % boron concentration to that of the a-C:B used as the graphene solid precursor. Boron doping does not modify the nano-architecture of graphene, but increases the concentration of defects in the films. Our results pave a new way for boron doped graphene synthesis using laser processing in a controlled and reproducible way, in particular to achieve designed electrical and chemical properties in various electronic and electrochemical applications.

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