• Pineda, Shafique
• Seo, Michael
• Gozukara, Yesim
• Fang, Jinghua
• Yick, Samuel
• Ostrikov, Kostya

Abstract

Thermal chemical vapor deposition techniques for producing high-quality graphene, while promising, are limited by the requirement for lengthy high-temperature processing, their expense, and their hazardous nature. In particular, purified gases and extensive vacuum processing are necessary for creating a highly-controlled environment, isolated from ambient air, to enable the growth of high-quality graphenes. In this work, the ambient-air environment is exploited to enable the growth of high-quality graphenes, without the need for compressed gases. A renewable natural precursor, soybean oil, is rapidly transformed into continuous, high-quality graphene films, consisting of one to three layers, in a single step. The graphene has excellent optical and electrical properties: an optical transmission of 94.3% and sheet resistance of 330 Ω/sq. Furthermore, the functionality of the graphene is demonstrated through direct utilization as an electrode to realize an effective electrochemical genosensor for Alzheimer’s disease. The process is applicable to other types of renewable precursors and opens a new avenue for low-cost synthesis of high-quality graphene films.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• chemical vapor deposition