The near explosion of attention given to graphene has attracted many to its research field. As new studies and findings about graphene synthesis, properties, electronic quality control, and possible applications simultaneous burgeon in the scientific community, it is quite hard to grasp the breadth of graphene history. At this stage, graphene's many fascinating qualities have been amply reported and its potential for various electronic applications are increasing, pulling in ever more newcomers to the field of graphene. Thus it has become important as a community to have an equal understanding of how this material was discovered, why it is stirring up the scientific community and what sort of progress has been made and for what purposes. Since the first discovery, the hype has expediently led to near accomplishment of industrial-sized production of graphene. This review covers the progress and development of synthesis and transfer techniques with an emphasis on the most recent technique of chemical vapor deposition, and explores the potential applications of graphene that are made possible with the improved synthesis and transfer.
Currently, graphene is a topic of very active research in fields from science to potential applications. For various radio-frequency (RF) circuit applications including low-noise amplifiers, the unique ambipolar nature of graphene field-effect transistors can be utilized for high-performance frequency multipliers, mixers and high-speed radiometers. Potential integration of graphene on Silicon substrates with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor compatibility would also benefit future RF systems. The future success of the RF circuit applications depends on vertical and lateral scaling of graphene metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors to minimize parasitics and improve gate modulation efficiency in the channel. In this paper, we highlight recent progress in graphene materials, devices, and circuits for RF applications. For passive RF applications, we show its transparent electromagnetic shielding in Ku-band and transparent antenna, where its success depends on quality of materials. We also attempt to discuss future applications and challenges of graphene.
Graphene is an attractive material for device applications, but device characteristics are very unstable because the graphene is very sensitive to environmental factors such as charges nearby the graphene, metal contacts, defects, contaminants and other adsorbates. Since the interactions between graphene and environmental factors affect the electrical characteristics of graphene devices, the interpretation of electrical characteristics as simple as current-voltage curves is non-trivial, despite the common practice of using well known electrical characterization methods that have been used in silicon MOSFET. This paper addresses major obstacles in the electrical characterization of graphene devices and offers countermeasures to improve the accuracy of electrical characterization methods.
A novel strategy for the simultaneous reduction and functionalization of graphene oxide (G-O) was developed using polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAAH) as a multi-functional agent. The G-O functionalization by PAAH was carried out under basic conditions to catalyze the epoxide ring opening reaction of G-O with abundant amine groups of PAAH. We found that G-O was not only functionalized with PAAH but also reduced under the reaction condition. Moreover, the synthesized PAAH-functionalized G-O sheets were soluble in water and applicable to the synthesis of nanocomposites with gold nanoparticles.
Successful application of graphene requires development of various tools for its chemical modification. In this paper, we present a Raman spectroscopic investigation of the effects of UV light on single layer graphene with and without the presence of O2 molecules. The UV emission from a low pressure Hg lamp photolyzes O2 molecules into O atoms, which are known to form epoxy on the basal plane of graphene. The resulting surface epoxy groups were identified by the disorder-related Raman D band. It was also found that adhesive residues present in the graphene samples prepared by micro-mechanical exfoliation using adhesive tape severely interfere with the O atom reaction with graphene. The UV-induced reaction was also successfully applied to chemical vapor deposition-grown graphene. Since the current method can be readily carried out in ambient air only with UV light, it will be useful in modifying the surfaces of graphene and related materials.
The size and the physical properties of graphene oxide sheets were controlled by changing the oxidation temperature of graphite. Graphite oxide (GO) samples were prepared at different oxidation temperatures of 20℃, 27℃ and 35℃ using a modified Hummers' method. The carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio and the average size of the GO sheets varied according to the oxidation temperature: 1.26 and 12.4 μm at 20℃, 1.24 and 10.5 μm at 27℃, and 1.18 and 8.5 μm at 35℃. This indicates that the C/O ratio and the average size of the graphene oxide sheets respectively increase as the oxidation temperature decreases. Moreover, it was observed that the surface charge and optical properties of the graphene oxide sheets could be tuned by changing the temperature. This study demonstrates the tunability of the physical properties of graphene oxide sheets and shows that the properties depend on the functional groups generated during the oxidation process.
We analyzed the effect of etchants for metal catalysts in terms of the characteristics of resulting graphene films, such as sheet resistance, hall mobility, transmittance, and carrier concentration. We found the residue of FeCl3 etchant degraded the sheet resistance and mobility of graphene films. The residue was identified as an iron oxide containing a small amount of Cl through elemental analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. To remove this residue, we provide an alternative etching solution by introducing acidic etching solutions and their combinations (HNO3, HCl, FeCl3 + HCl, and FeCl3+HNO3). The combination of FeCl3 and acidic solutions (HCl and HNO3) resulted in more enhanced electrical properties than pure etchants, which is attributed to the elimination of left over etching residue, and a small amount of amorphous carbon debris after the etching process.
Mass production of graphene-based materials, which have high specific surface area, is of importance for industrial applications. Herein, we report on a facile approach to produce thermally modified graphene oxide (TMG) in large quantities. We performed this experiment with a hot plate under environments that have relatively low temperature and no using inert gas. TMG materials showed a high specific surface area (430 m2g-1). Successful reduction was confirmed by elemental analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetic analysis, and X-ray diffraction. The resulting materials might be useful for various applications such as in rechargeable batteries, as hydrogen storage materials, as nano-fillers in composites, in ultracapacitors, and in chemical/bio sensors.
In this work, expanded graphite (EG)-reinforced poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) nanocomposites were prepared by the melt mixing method and the content of the EG was fixed as 2 wt%. The effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as a co-carbon filler on the electrical and mechanical properties of the EG/PET was investigated. The results showed that the electrical and mechanical properties of the EG/PET were significantly increased with the addition of MWCNTs, showing an improvement over those of PET prepared with EG alone. This was most likely caused by the interconnections in the MWCNTs between the EG layers in the PET matrix. It was found that the addition of the MWCNTs into EG/PET led to dense conductive networks for easy electron transfers, indicating a bridge effect of the MWCNTs.
The defect sites on chemical vapor deposition grown graphene are investigated through the selective electrochemical deposition (SED) of Au nanoparticles. For SED of Au nanoparticles, an engineered potential pulse is applied to the working electrode versus the reference electrode, thereby highlighting the defect sites, which are more reactive relative to the pristine surface. Most defect sites decorated by Au nanoparticles are situated along the Cu grain boundaries, implying that the origin of the defects lies in the synthesis of uneven graphene layers on the rough Cu surface.