Jump to main content
Jump to site search
Publishing
Advanced

Issue 120, 2015
Previous Article Next Article

Solid-state graphene formation via a nickel carbide intermediate phase

W. Xiong,a  Y. S. Zhou,a  W. J. Hou,a  T. Guillemet,ab  J. F. Silvain,ab  Y. Gao,a  M. Lahaye,b  E. Lebraud,b  S. Xu,c  X. W. Wang,c  D. A. Cullen,d  K. L. More,d  L. Jiange  and  Y. F. Lu*a 
Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA
E-mail: ylu2@unl.edu

b Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux, Avenue du Docteur Albert Schweitzer, Pessac Cedex, France

c Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, USA

d Materials Science & Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, USA

e Laser Micro/Nano Fabrication Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

Abstract

Direct formation of graphene with a controlled number of graphitic layers on dielectric surfaces is highly desired for practical applications but still challenging. Distinguished from the conventional chemical vapor deposition methods, a solid-state rapid thermal processing (RTP) method can achieve high-quality graphene formation on dielectric surfaces without transfer. However, little research is available to elucidate the graphene growth mechanism in the RTP method (heating rate ∼15 °C s−1). Here we show a solid-state transformation mechanism in which a metastable nickel carbide (Ni3C) intermediate phase plays a critical role in transforming amorphous carbon to two dimensional crystalline graphene and contributing to the autonomous Ni evaporation in the RTP process. The formation, migration and decomposition of Ni3C are confirmed to be responsible for graphene formation and Ni evaporation. The Ni3C-assisted graphene formation mechanism expands the understanding of Ni-catalyzed graphene formation and provides insightful guidance for controlled growth of graphene through the solid-state transformation process.

Graphical abstract: Solid-state graphene formation via a nickel carbide intermediate phase

Back to tab navigation
Download options Please wait...

Supplementary files

Publication details

The article was received on 12 Sep 2015, accepted on 04 Nov 2015 and first published on 10 Nov 2015


Article type: Paper
DOI: 10.1039/C5RA18682J
Author version available: Download Author version (PDF)
Citation: RSC Adv., 2015,5, 99037-99043
  •   Request permissions

    Solid-state graphene formation via a nickel carbide intermediate phase

    W. Xiong, Y. S. Zhou, W. J. Hou, T. Guillemet, J. F. Silvain, Y. Gao, M. Lahaye, E. Lebraud, S. Xu, X. W. Wang, D. A. Cullen, K. L. More, L. Jiang and Y. F. Lu, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 99037
    DOI: 10.1039/C5RA18682J

    If you are not the author of this article and you wish to reproduce material from it in a third party non-RSC publication you must formally request permission using RightsLink. Go to our Instructions for using RightsLink page for details.

    Authors contributing to RSC publications (journal articles, books or book chapters) do not need to formally request permission to reproduce material contained in this article provided that the correct acknowledgement is given with the reproduced material.

    Reproduced material should be attributed as follows:

    • For reproduction of material from NJC:
      Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and The Royal Society of Chemistry.
    • For reproduction of material from PCCP:
      Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from the PCCP Owner Societies.
    • For reproduction of material from PPS:
      Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from the European Society for Photobiology, the European Photochemistry Association, and The Royal Society of Chemistry.
    • For reproduction of material from all other RSC journals and books:
      Reproduced from Ref. XX with permission from The Royal Society of Chemistry.

    If the material has been adapted instead of reproduced from the original RSC publication "Reproduced from" can be substituted with "Adapted from".

    In all cases the Ref. XX is the XXth reference in the list of references.

    If you are the author of this article you do not need to formally request permission to reproduce figures, diagrams etc. contained in this article in third party publications or in a thesis or dissertation provided that the correct acknowledgement is given with the reproduced material.

    Reproduced material should be attributed as follows:

    • For reproduction of material from NJC:
      [Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) on behalf of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the RSC
    • For reproduction of material from PCCP:
      [Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of the PCCP Owner Societies
    • For reproduction of material from PPS:
      [Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) on behalf of the European Society for Photobiology, the European Photochemistry Association, and RSC
    • For reproduction of material from all other RSC journals:
      [Original citation] - Reproduced by permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry

    If you are the author of this article you still need to obtain permission to reproduce the whole article in a third party publication with the exception of reproduction of the whole article in a thesis or dissertation.

    Information about reproducing material from RSC articles with different licences is available on our Permission Requests page.

Search articles by author

Spotlight

Advertisements