Synthesis of graphene crystals from solid waste plastic by chemical vapor deposition

Here, we report the synthesis of high quality single crystal graphene on polycrystalline Cu foil using solid waste plastic as carbon source in an ambient pressure (AP) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Gas chromatography analysis shows that the waste plastic is rich in polyethylene and polystyrene based polymer components. The growth of individual crystal strongly influenced by the injection rate of decomposed polymeric components generated during pyrolysis of waste plastic. Synthesis of large hexagonal and round shape single crystal graphene are achieved with a controlled rate of pyrolysis for the waste plastic. Raman studies confirm high quality of the graphene crystals independent of hexagonal and round shapes. Again, nucleation of bilayer or few-layer graphene crystals are observed with a higher injection rate of decomposed polymeric components. The evolution of hexagonal graphene crystals synthesized by AP-CVD process from waste plastic can be significant to obtain large single crystal graphene and stacked bi-layer structure. Our findings shows that solid waste plastic can be directly use as a feedstock for high quality graphene growth and thereby converting to a significantly value added product. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.