Direct laser fabrication of large-area and patterned graphene at room temperature

Direct fabrication of graphene on solid carbon coated nickel surface was realized by laser irradiation at room temperature. High-quality graphene was obtained rapidly, e.g. 28.8 cm(2)/min. Arbitrary patterns designed by computer aided design (CAD) software were fabricated directly on Ni substrates without additional mask or setup. Raman mapping results showed that monolayer/bilayer graphene regions accounted for 64% of the film area. Graphene films exhibited excellent resistance to corrosion. The extremely low corrosion current density and high free corrosion potential in 3.5% NaCl aqueous (aq) solutions showed that the as-produced graphene had a superior anti-corrosion performance. The penetration and precipitation mechanism of carbon into Ni substrate during the fabrication process were also discussed. This approach may reach the scale large enough for practical applications. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.