Vertical Graphene Growth on AlCu4Mg Alloy by PECVD Technique

Ales Polzer,Katerina Mouralova,Jan Sedlacek,Libor Benes,Josef Sedlak

doi:10.3390/coatings11091108

Ales Polzer, Katerina Mouralova + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings11091108

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Abstract

Vertical graphene, which belongs to nanomaterials, is a very promising tool for improving the useful properties of long-used and proven materials. Since the growth of vertical graphene is different on each base material and has specific deposition setting parameters, it is necessary to examine each base material separately. For this reason, a full factor design of experiment was performed with 26 = 64 rounds, which contained additional 5 central points, i.e., a total of 69 rounds of individual experiments, which was to examine the effect of input factors Temperature, Pressure, Flow, CH4, Plasma Power, and Annealing in H2 on the growth of vertical graphene on aluminum alloy AlCu4Mg. The deposition was performed using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technology. Mainly, the occurrence of graphene was analyzed, which was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy, as well as its thickness. The characterization was performed using electron and transmission microscopy, including an atomic force microscope. It was found that the growth of graphene occurred in 7 cases and its thickness is affected only by the interaction flow (sccm) × pretreatment H2 (sccm).

Highlights

Among nanomaterials, graphene is one of the most studied materials due to its strong chemical bond between individual atoms, which gives it exceptional mechanical properties
It can be said that vertical graphene grows in our design of experiment only when the temperature is set to 800 ◦C, the chamber pressure to 200 mTorr, and at the same time the methane content is set to 100%
A comparison of the data for the different values of the power parameter shows that a higher value of the plasma power reduces the 2D/G ratio, which is related to the higher energy of the system during deposition

Summary

Introduction

Graphene is one of the most studied materials due to its strong chemical bond between individual atoms, which gives it exceptional mechanical properties. Graphene was discovered in 2004, the main problem, as with any new technology, is the price, depending on the quality of the final product. In the first years after its discovery, it was one of the most expensive materials in the world, but this situation has changed over the course of 15 years due to the discovery of new production processes [1]. The resistivity of the resulting layer would be at room temperature 10−6 Ω cm and would make graphene the best electrical conductor. In terms of mechanical properties, graphene has a tensile strength of 130 GPa [3] and a Young’s modulus value of 1 TPa [4], which makes it the strongest material in the world

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