Abstract
The exceptional charge-transport, mechanical, and barrier properties of graphene are well known. High-quality films of single-layer graphene produced over large areas, however, are extremely expensive. The high cost of graphene precludes its use in industries-such as transparent electrodes and flexible packaging-that might take full advantage of its properties. This minireview presents several strategies for the transfer of graphene from the substrates used for growth to substrates used for the final application. Each strategy shares the characteristic of being non-destructive: that is, the growth substrate remains reusable for further synthesis of new graphene. These processes have the potential to lower significantly the costs of manufacturing graphene, to increase production yields, and to minimize environmental impact. This article is divided into sections on (i) the synthesis of high-quality single-layer graphene and (ii) its non-destructive transfer to a host substrate. Section (ii) is further divided according to the substrate from which graphene is transferred: single-crystalline wafers or flexible copper foils. We also comment, wherever possible, on defects produced as a result of the transfer, and potential strategies to mitigate these defects. We conclude that several methods for the green synthesis and transfer of graphene have several of the right characteristics to be useful in industrial scale production.
Highlights
While many of the most exciting potential applications of graphene exist at the nanoscale—e.g., all-graphene integrated circuits—this versatile material has exciting applications on the very large scale
For graphene to constitute any considerable segment of the global markets for these applications, the outstanding performance and properties of graphene have to be accompanied by large-volume manufacturability at low cost and with minimal environmental impact
Methods for synthesizing graphene have been under investigation since 2004.5 The intensity of this work has resulted in the ability to synthesize large areas of graphene (100 m sheets) in a roll-to-roll fashion[6] at high speeds (0.6 m min−1).[7]
Summary
While many of the most exciting potential applications of graphene exist at the nanoscale—e.g., all-graphene integrated circuits—this versatile material has exciting applications on the very large scale. For graphene to constitute any considerable segment of the global markets for these applications, the outstanding performance and properties of graphene have to be accompanied by large-volume manufacturability at low cost and with minimal environmental impact. Methods for synthesizing graphene have been under investigation since 2004.5 The intensity of this work has resulted in the ability to synthesize large areas of graphene (100 m sheets) in a roll-to-roll fashion[6] at high speeds (0.6 m min−1).[7] there appears to be a bottleneck in the industrial-scale
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