Flame-annealing assisted synthesis of graphene films from adamantane

Here we demonstrate a facile approach to grow uniform and large area single layer graphene directly over polycrystalline metal foil from nanoporous carbon (NC) material. The NC is synthesized by using the adamantane (C10H16) flame method. The flame-annealing of adamantane resulted in the conversion of adamantane to NC. The size of NC is similar to 80 to 100 nm. The prepared sandwich structures (Mo-NC-Ni-dielectric-Mo) were annealed at 850 to 950 degrees C, where NC was used as a carbon source material. The NC material was successfully transformed into single layer graphene. We have explored the possibility of using our approach to grow graphene in low vacuum (1 X 10(-10) Pa) air instead of inert Ar atmosphere. The generated pressure on sandwich structures has enhanced the density/scalability as well as the quality of graphene. We observed the sheet resistance of graphene was similar to 929 U per sq at 91.8% transparency. Our work expands the possibility of synthesizing single-layer graphene from various carbon source materials. Moreover, the synthesized graphene films can be applied for future electronics applications.