Ultrahigh mobility in polyolefin-supported graphene

Abstract

A high carrier mobility is an important parameter for graphene-based electronics. While the recent reports have shown impressive results for individual micro-scale devices, scalable production of high mobility graphene has been challenging. We here show that centimeter-scale graphene devices with room temperature carrier mobilities in excess of 10 000 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ can be achieved on polyolefinic substrates. Measurements on Parafilm-supported graphene devices show, on average, a fivefold-enhancement in mobility over traditional devices. We find that a decreased charged-impurity scattering is the origin of this behavior. Spectroscopic characterization reveals oxygen-containing polymer residue as the main source of such charged impurities. A comparison of different polyolefins highlights the positive impact of oxygen-free polymers as support materials for high mobility graphene devices. Finally, moldable and wearable graphene devices for biosensors were shown to be enabled by polyolefinic substrates.