Abstract
Recent advances in nanoscience have opened ways of recycling substrates for nanomaterial growth. Novel materials, such as atomically thin materials, are highly desirable for the recycling substrates. In this work, we report recycling of monolayer graphene as a growth template for synthesis of single crystalline ZnO nanowires. Selective nucleation of ZnO nanowires on graphene was elucidated by scanning electron microscopy and density functional theory calculation. Growth and subsequent separation of ZnO nanowires was repeated up to seven times on the same monolayer graphene film. Raman analyses were also performed to investigate the quality of graphene structure along the recycling processes. The chemical robustness of graphene enables the repetitive ZnO nanowire growth without noticeable degradation of the graphene quality. This work presents a route for graphene as a multifunctional growth template for diverse nanomaterials such as nanocrystals, aligned nanowires, other two-dimensional materials, and semiconductor thin films.
Highlights
IntroductionEpitaxy of thin films and nanomaterials is a crucial step for device manufacturing. conventional epitaxy is preferably conducted when original substrates and overgrown materials possess similar lattice constants and thermal expansion coefficients
Epitaxy of thin films and nanomaterials is a crucial step for device manufacturing.conventional epitaxy is preferably conducted when original substrates and overgrown materials possess similar lattice constants and thermal expansion coefficients.To utilize the epilayer, the substrates are mostly disposed of or used as a base substrate in devices
We report a recycling process of monolayer graphene used as a growth template for synthesis of single crystalline ZnO nanowires (NWs)
Summary
Epitaxy of thin films and nanomaterials is a crucial step for device manufacturing. conventional epitaxy is preferably conducted when original substrates and overgrown materials possess similar lattice constants and thermal expansion coefficients. The ELO technique has demonstrated the reuse of substrates for various device applications, such as thin film photovoltaic cells, photodetectors, and light-emitting diodes [1,2,3], it still requires chemomechanical polishing, which induces substrate material loss of ~10 μm/recycle. ELO on graphene can protect the substrate underneath this 2D graphitic structure In this case, the graphene film cannot be recycled because it delaminates from the substrate or it starts forming micro-spalling marks. We report a recycling process of monolayer graphene used as a growth template for synthesis of single crystalline ZnO nanowires (NWs). The chemical robustness of graphene enables the reuse of the graphene layer for repeated nanomaterials growth (at least seven times) without noticeable degradation of its quality. This work provides a route for graphene as a recyclable growth template for various materials
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