Discipline: Physics
Subcategory: Materials Science
Aleaha Schenck - North Carolina Central University
Co-Author(s): Amber McCreary, Ana L. Elias, and Mauricio Terrones, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
Graphene is a fascinating two-dimensional (2D) materials with outstanding physico-chemical properties that makes it promising for a variety of different applications. As a 2D material in which all of the atoms are on the surface, graphene is very sensitive to its chemical environment. In this work, chemical vapor deposition routes were using to synthesize pristine and nitrogen-doped graphenes, after which they were chemically modified. The ultimate goal of the modification of the graphene is to carefully tune its chemical and electronic properties, which would have a huge impact in the resulting device properties that could be achieved. In particular, graphene was synthesized on copper foils using toluene or pyridine as a carbon source in a unique bubbler-assisted furnace. Subsequently, the graphene was transferred from its original copper substrate onto a SiO2/Si substrate using a polymer-assisted wet transfer method. Oxygen plasma etching was carried out and the 2D layers were characterized both before and after the treatment. Raman spectroscopy, which is one the most important characterization techniques for 2D materials, was used to analyze the changes in the graphene after plasma treatment. Since the plasma treatment creates defects in the graphene, we observed a large increase in the ‘defect-induced’ Raman mode of graphene, or the D-peak, in samples that were plasma treated. Thus, by varying the time of the plasma treatment, we are able to control the amount of defects in the sample which was monitored by Raman spectroscopy.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): National Science Foundation
Faculty Advisor: Mauricio Terrones, mtterrones@gmail.com
Role: In this research I took part in growing Pristine Graphene at different flow rates. I also, learned how to use the Raman Spectroscopy to characterize the graphene. During the internship, I use plasma treatment to observe the amount of carbons taken away during the treatment.