Abstract
Graphene and its derivatives have many superior electrical, thermal, mechanical, chemical, and structural properties, and promise for many applications. One of the issues for scalable applications is the lack of a simple, reliable method that allows the deposit of a well-ordered monolayer using low-cost graphene flakes onto target substrates with different surface properties. Another issue is the adhesion of the deposited graphene thin film, which has not been well investigated yet. Following our former finding of a double self-assembly (DSA) process for efficient deposition of a monolayer of graphene flakes (MGFs), in this work we demonstrate that the DSA process can be applied even on very challenging samples including highly hydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), flexible textiles, complex 3D objects, and thin glass fibers. Additionally, we tested adhesion of the graphene flakes on the flat glass substrate by scotch tape peel test of the MGFs. The results show that the graphene flakes adhere quite well on the flat glass substrate and most of the graphene flakes stay on the glass. These findings may trigger many large-scale applications of low-cost graphene feedstocks and other 2D materials.
Highlights
It is hard to produce a uniform layer on 3D structures and objects using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown graphene; for example, for application as an anti-corrosion coating on the surface of 3D objects, functional coating on optical lenses, conducting thin film for antistatic coating, or for shielding of electromagnetic irradiation
Following our former work, in this contribution we demonstrate the potential of the double self-assembly (DSA) process on very ambitious samples, such as on a highly hydrophobic surface, highly flexible textiles, conformal coating on complex 3D objects, and glass fibers with a very large curvature
In this work it is demonstrated that the DSA process can be used to deposit conformal graphene layers on highly hydrophobic substrates such as PTFE, on flexible textiles, on complex 3D objects, and even on single glass fibers with small diameters as low as 0.42 mm
Summary
High quality graphene layers can be grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on copper or nickel sheets [17,18], or by sublimation of silicon on a single crystalline SiC wafer [19,20], leaving behind a high quality crystalline carbon in the form of graphene. It is hard to produce a uniform layer on 3D structures and objects using the CVD-grown graphene; for example, for application as an anti-corrosion coating on the surface of 3D objects, functional coating on optical lenses, conducting thin film for antistatic coating, or for shielding of electromagnetic irradiation. This significantly limits the applications of graphene.
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