Abstract
Chemical vapor deposition is the most promising technique for the mass production of high-quality graphene, in which the metal substrate plays a crucial role in the catalytic decomposition of the carbon source, assisting the attachment of the active carbon species, and regulating the structure of the graphene film. Due to some drawbacks of single metal substrates, alloy substrates have gradually attracted attention owing to their complementarity in the catalytic growth of graphene. In this review, we focus on the rational design of binary alloys, such as Cu/Ni, Ni/Mo, and Cu/Si, to control the layer numbers and growth rate of graphene. By analyzing the elementary steps of graphene growth, general principles are summarized in terms of the catalytic activity, metal–carbon interactions, carbon solubility, and mutual miscibility. Several challenges in this field are also put forward to inspire the novel design of alloy catalysts and the synthesis of graphene films bearing desirable properties.
Highlights
The rise of graphene [1,2] has aroused a new upsurge in exploring its intriguing physical and chemical properties on a two-dimensional scale [3,4,5,6,7,8,9], as well as its unique applications superior to those of bulk materials [10,11,12,13]
We briefly introduce the elementary steps of graphene growth on metal substrates to illustrate how the properties of the metal catalysts can affect the growth behavior of graphene
We detailed the influence of metal substrates on the structures and properties of graphene films and summarized recent advances in the controllable growth of graphene films on binary alloy catalysts
Summary
The rise of graphene [1,2] has aroused a new upsurge in exploring its intriguing physical and chemical properties on a two-dimensional scale [3,4,5,6,7,8,9], as well as its unique applications superior to those of bulk materials [10,11,12,13]. The process of commercialization requires the rapid and low-temperature preparation of single-crystal graphene films [24,25] In this regard, alloy metal substrates, such as Cu/Ni [26], Ni/Mo [27], Cu/Si [28], Pt/Si [29], Ni/Au [30], Ni/Ti [31], and Cu/Co [32], which combine the advantages of the different metal components, provide more significant benefits than single metal catalysts in terms of bridging the aforementioned gap. With a preliminary impression of the design principles for metal substrates, recent advances in two important research topics, i.e., the layer number control and the fast growth of CVD-grown graphene, are summarized to detail the superiority of the alloy catalysts. The remaining synthetic challenges in graphene synthesis are put forward to inspire further in-depth research
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