Growth and characterization of boron doped graphene by Hot Filament Chemical Vapor Deposition Technique (HFCVD)

Abstract

Large-area boron doped graphene was synthesized on Cu foil (as a catalyst) by Hot Filament Chemical Vapor Deposition (HFCVD) using boron oxide powder and ethanol vapor. To investigate the effect of different boron percentages, grow time and the growth mechanism of boron-doped graphene, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman scattering and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were applied. Also in this experiment, the I–V characteristic carried out for study of electrical property of graphene with keithley 2361 system. Nucleation of graphene domains with an average domain size of ~20µm was observed when the growth time is 9min that has full covered on the Cu surface. The Raman spectroscopy show that the frequency of the 2D band down-shifts with B doping, consistent with the increase of the in-plane lattice constant, and a weakening of the B–C in-plane bond strength relative to that of C–C bond. Also the shifts of the G-band frequencies can be interpreted in terms of the size of the C–C ring and the changes in the electronic structure of graphene in the presence of boron atoms. The study of electrical property shows that by increasing the grow time the conductance increases which this result in agree with SEM images and graphene grain boundary. Also by increasing the boron percentage in gas mixer the conductance decreases since doping graphene with boron creates a band-gap in graphene band structure. The XPS results of B doped graphene confirm the existence of boron in doped graphene, which indicates the boron atoms doped in the graphene lattice are mainly in the form of BC3. The results showed that boron-doped graphene can be successfully synthesized using boron oxide powder and ethanol vapor via a HFCVD method and also chemical boron doping can be change the electrical conductivity of the graphene.