Toward Epitaxial Growth of Misorientation-Free Graphene on Cu(111) Foils

The epitaxial growth of single-crystal thin films relies on the availability of a single-crystal substrate and a strong interaction between epilayer and substrate. Previous studies have reported the roles of the substrate (e.g., symmetry and lattice constant) in determining the orientations of chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown graphene, and Cu(111) is considered as the most promising substrate for epitaxial growth of graphene single crystals. However, the roles of gas-phase reactants and graphene-substrate interaction in determining the graphene orientation are still unclear. Here, we find that trace amounts of oxygen is capable of enhancing the interaction between graphene edges and Cu(111) substrate and, therefore, eliminating the misoriented graphene domains in the nucleation stage. A modified anomalous grain growth method is developed to improve the size of the as-obtained Cu(111) single crystal, relying on strongly textured polycrystalline Cu foils. The batch-to-batch production of A3-size (similar to 0.42 x 0.3 m(2)) single-crystal graphene films is achieved on Cu(111) foils relying on a self-designed pilot-scale CVD system. The as-grown graphene exhibits ultrahigh carrier mobilities of 68 000 cm(2) V- 1 s(- 1) at room temperature and 210 000 cm(2) V-1 s(- 1) at 2.2 K. The findings and strategies provided in our work would accelerate the mass production of high-quality misorientation-free graphene films.

Automated summary

This study found that trace amounts of oxygen enhance the interaction between graphene and Cu(111) substrate, eliminating misoriented graphene domains. Through a modified anomalous grain growth method and a self-designed pilot-scale CVD system, high-quality single-crystal graphene films were produced on Cu(111) foils in batch production. The findings and strategies provided in this work could accelerate the mass production of high-quality misorientation-free graphene films.