Scientists reduce the cost of graphene production by 100 times

At present, compared to more traditional electronic materials, graphene manufacturing process is very slow, which means higher cost. Now Glasgow University researchers have discovered that copper materials used in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries can quickly produce large quantities of graphene. As two-dimensional crystals of carbon atoms, graphene is a basic building material for many carbon derivatives such as zero-dimensional fullerenes, one-dimensional carbon nanotubes, and three-dimensional graphite. These carbon nanomaterials are used to make various electronic products. From solar cells to bulbs and ultra-sensitive gas sensors. However, the production of large-area high-quality graphene is much more expensive than silicon.

A large part of this production cost is the production of graphene substrates. By using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, carbides of platinum, nickel, or titanium are exposed to ethylene or benzene in a high temperature environment to produce monolayers (one layer by one atom thick) of graphene. Recent production methods have reduced these costs by using copper as a matrix, but even this method is still expensive to produce.

To help greatly reduce these costs, researchers used inexpensive copper foils for lithium-ion batteries that are commonly used to make ultra-thin cathodes (negative electrodes) to deposit high-quality graphene on their surface. As it turns out, this cheap copper foil is a good substrate. The copper surface is completely smooth, and it is very suitable for the formation of graphene. It costs one dollar per square meter. The cost per square meter of the previous expensive method is 115 dollars.

The research team believes that large-scale inexpensive synthesis methods can realize graphene-based flexible optoelectronic systems, including high-quality graphene film tags such as cell phone bend displays, electronic paper, radio frequency identification (RFID), medical channels to provide drugs or monitor life. Signs, electronic skin for robots and artificial limbs, etc.