An Atomic-Scale View of the Nucleation and Growth of Graphene Islands on Pt Surfaces

Feng, Xiaofeng; Wu, Jason; Bell, Alexis T.; Salmeron, Miquel

doi:10.1021/jp512163n

An Atomic-Scale View of the Nucleation and Growth of Graphene Islands on Pt Surfaces

Journal Article · Tue Mar 17 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/jp512163n· OSTI ID:1571034

Feng, Xiaofeng ^[1]; Wu, Jason ^[2]; Bell, Alexis T. ^[2]; Salmeron, Miquel ^[1]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

In this work, we study the nucleation and growth of epitaxial graphene on Pt(111) surfaces at the atomic level using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Graphene nucleation occurs both near Pt step edges and on Pt terraces, producing hexagonally shaped islands with atomically sharp zigzag edges. Graphene interacts strongly with Pt substrate during growth, by etching and replacement of Pt atoms from step edges, which results in faceting of the Pt steps. The favorable lattice orientations of graphene islands are found to be parallel to those of the Pt substrate, but other orientations are still possible. Grain boundaries are formed when two graphene islands merge with different lattice orientations. Improved growth conditions such as smaller nucleation density and higher growth rate can produce high quality graphene film with larger grain sizes.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1571034

Journal Information:: Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Journal Name: Journal of Physical Chemistry. C Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 119; ISSN 1932-7447

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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