Journal
NANO LETTERS
Volume 11, Issue 2, Pages 424-430Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/nl103053t
Keywords
Graphene; rhodium; coronene; carbon; STM; DFT; nucleation; growth
Categories
Funding
- Scottish Funding Council
- SRDG [HR07003]
- Natural Science Foundation of China [20873142, 20733008, 20923001]
- Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2007CB815205]
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The nucleation and growth mechanisms of graphene on Rh(111) via temperature-programmed growth of C2H4 are studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, and by density functional theory calculations. By combining our experimental and first-principles approaches, we show that carbon nanoislands form in the initial stages of graphene growth, possessing an exclusive size of seven honeycomb carbon units (hereafter labeled as 7C(6)). These dusters adopt a domelike hexagonal shape indicating that bonding to the substrate is. localized on the peripheral C atoms. Smoluchowski ripening is identified as the dominant mechanism leading to the formation of graphene, with the size-selective carbon islands as precursors. Control experiments and calculations, whereby coronene molecules, the hydrogenated analogues of 7C(6), are deposited on Rh(111), provide an unambiguous structural and chemical identification of the 7C(6) building blocks.
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