Ganesh J. Shenoy,
David Parobek,
Muhammad Salim,
Zhiting Li,
Cheng Tian and
Haitao Liu*
Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. E-mail: hliu@pitt.edu
First published on 6th January 2016
In this report we show that the photochemical oxidation of monolayer graphene is strongly dependent on its underlying substrate. It was found that chemical vapor deposition-grown monolayer graphene transferred onto a silicon wafer is more easily oxidized compared to graphene that was left on the copper substrate or transferred onto a H2-annealed copper foil. The differences in the degree of oxidation were tentatively attributed to the varying energies of adhesion between the graphene and the underlying substrate. Our result has significant implications for the outdoor use of graphene as a transparent conducting material.
The CVD procedure used here is known to produce monolayer graphene and upon inspection of the 300 nm-SiO2–G sample with optical microscopy, it was noted that there were only two color contrasts present, one representing areas of graphene coverage and the other representing uncovered areas. Multiple layer graphene is expected to produce more than two color contrasts near holes and edges, corresponding to the varying number of layers present. Additionally, thickness of our graphene sample measured by AFM (Fig. S1†) was within the range of reported values of transferred CVD single layer graphene.13
Raman spectra were obtained on the 300 nm-SiO2–G, native-SiO2–G, and mica–G samples before any photochemical treatment. Along with an un-transferred pristine sample of CuCVD–G, the transferred samples were simultaneously placed in a UV-Ozone (UVO) chamber and treated with UVO for 30 minutes. After the treatment, the samples that were transferred onto copper foils were again transferred using the same transfer process onto silicon wafers. All samples were then characterized with Raman spectroscopy. The 300 nm-SiO2–G, CuCVD–G, and CuTrans–G samples were also characterized with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical microscopy to observe the graphene film structure post-treatment. Additional experimental details are available in the ESI.†
After treatment for 30 minutes in UVO, Raman spectra were obtained for each sample. Fig. 1 shows the Raman spectra of 300 nm-SiO2–G, CuCVD–G, and CuTrans–G samples. Fig. 1a shows the Raman spectrum of 300 nm-SiO2–G before any treatment. The peak at ca. 1350 cm−1 corresponds to the D peak, which is related to the defect density on the graphene surface. The G peak at ∼1580 cm−1 corresponds to the in-plane sp2 CC stretching of the carbon atoms in the graphene lattice and its intensity can also be used to gauge the degree of oxidation present as the attachment of oxygen moieties results in sp3 hybridization of the carbon atoms in the graphene lattice. Lastly, the 2D peak at ∼2700 cm−1 is an overtone of the D peak but does not require nearby defects to become Raman active as does the D peak.14,15 We noticed a very weak D peak in the untreated 300 nm-SiO2–G sample, which corresponds to a low defect density that is commonly observed in chemical vapor deposition synthesized graphene samples. Note that as the same batch of graphene was transferred onto the various substrates, the spectrum of the untreated 300 nm-SiO2–G sample is representative of the graphene on all samples prior to treatment with UVO.
Fig. 1b shows the 300 nm-SiO2–G sample after 30 min of UVO oxidation. All three Raman peaks (D, G, and 2D) have significantly decreased in intensity with the 2D peak almost completely vanished (see Table 1 for 2D peak areas). This observation is consistent with significant oxidation resulting in the loss of sp2 atomic structure of the graphene sheet. Fig. 1c shows the Raman spectrum of graphene that was left on its growth copper substrate (CuCVD–G) when placed in the UVO chamber for 30 minutes. Note that this graphene sample was transferred onto a silicon wafer with 300 nm of thermal oxide before Raman characterization and the same condition was used in collecting the spectra; as such, the Raman signal intensity can be directly compared with the 300 nm-SiO2–G sample. From Fig. 1c it is clear that compared to the case of 300 nm-SiO2–G sample, the CuCVD–G sample gave higher intensity in all peaks; a significant 2D peak was also observed, which was almost vanished in the treated 300 nm-SiO2–G sample. Both facts indicate that the graphene that was left on its native copper foil suffered much less oxidation than the graphene that was transferred onto 300 nm thermal oxide silicon wafer prior to UVO treatment. Similarly, for graphene that was transferred onto a mica substrate prior to UVO treatment, we also observed severe oxidation similar to the case of 300 nm-SiO2–G (Fig. S2†). The ratio of the area under the D peak to the area under the G peak (AD/AG) may also be used as a quantitative measure of the degree of oxidation.16 The calculated AD/AG ratios (Table 1) are consistent with a greater degree of oxidation on the graphene that was transferred onto either silicon wafer or mica prior to UVO treatment than the graphene that was left on its growth copper foil.
Sample | AD/AG | A2D |
---|---|---|
300 nm-SiO2–G before treatment | 0.10 ± 0.04 | (1.48 ± 0.15) × 105 |
300 nm-SiO2–G after treatment | 1.40 ± 0.08 | (4.7 ± 0.5) × 103 |
CuCVD–G after treatment | 1.06 ± 0.12 | (1.20 ± 0.08) × 105 |
CuTrans–G after treatment | 1.51 ± 0.08 | (2.7 ± 1.2) × 104 |
Native-SiO2–G after treatment | 1.45 ± 0.32 | |
Mica–G after treatment | 1.50 ± 0.31 |
Lastly, Fig. 1d is the Raman spectrum of a sample of graphene that was transferred onto an annealed copper foil prior to UVO treatment; after the UVO oxidation, it was transferred again onto a silicon wafer for Raman characterization. From this spectrum it is seen that the D peak is significant and the G and 2D peaks have decreased in intensity. This observation indicates a degree of oxidation that is greater than that observed in the CuCVD–G sample but less than that observed in the 300 nm-SiO2–G sample. Importantly, this experiment demonstrates that the majority of the defects were formed during the UVO oxidation and not the transferring process, as the CuTrans–G has been transferred twice – once onto the copper foil prior to UVO treatment and once again onto silicon wafer post treatment – yet has a lesser degree of damage than the 300 nm-SiO2–G sample which was only transferred once. It was noted that despite the peaks showing very little intensity in the case of 300 nm-SiO2–G sample, the AD/AG ratio for 300 nm-SiO2–G was lower than that of CuTrans–G. Although on the surface this observation may suggest a lesser degree of oxidation for the 300 nm-SiO2–G sample compared with CuTrans–G, the severely decreased intensity of the G peak and the absence of the 2D peak clearly indicate that the 300 nm-SiO2–G sample actually suffered greater structural damage. In fact, it is known that in the progression of graphene damage, the AD/AG ratio initially increases and subsequently decreases upon severe atomic-scale damage.16,17
We also conducted a similar experiment in which X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to probe the oxygen and carbon content of graphene after it had undergone UVO treatment while supported on different substrates. Just as described earlier, graphene samples were prepared in which graphene was either left on its growth copper substrate (CuCVD–G), transferred onto annealed copper foil (CuTrans–G), or transferred onto silicon wafer with 300 nm thermal oxide layer (300 nm-SiO2–G). The samples were put through identical UVO treatments as described before and the graphene that was supported by copper foils was transferred onto identically cleaned silicon wafers (with 300 nm of oxide layer) prior to XPS measurements. The C1s and O1s peaks of the treated samples are shown in Fig. 2. These XPS measurements are consistent with the results obtained from Raman spectroscopy. The graphene supported by silicon wafer undergoes the greatest amount of oxidation, as indicated by a large O1s peak and a small C1s peak, and the graphene that was left on its growth copper foil showed the least amount of oxidation. The graphene that had been transferred to an annealed copper foil undergoes an intermediate amount of oxidation.
As UVO oxidation is sensitive to the amount of ultraviolet light illuminating the samples, it is important to ensure that these observed results are not simply due to an optical phenomenon. In order to verify this, we performed an experiment in which we transferred CVD synthesized graphene onto both silicon wafer with native oxide and silicon wafer with 300 nm of thermal oxide. Both samples were then treated with UVO under identical conditions. It is known that the oxide layer of the silicon wafers could result in strong interference effects.18 Raman spectra were subsequently obtained on the treated samples as shown in Fig. 3. From these spectra, it is clear that in both cases of graphene supported by silicon with native oxide or thermal oxide, the D and G peaks significantly decreased and the 2D peak nearly vanished. These results suggest that the degree of oxidation on graphene supported by silicon wafers with varying oxide thicknesses was approximately the same, eliminating the possibility that the observed substrate dependent oxidation was due to optical phenomena. In addition, the fact that CuCVD–G and CuTrans–G samples suffered very different degrees of oxidation despite both being supported by copper foil rules out the possibility that this substrate dependence is strictly an optical phenomenon.
Whereas Raman spectroscopy and XPS probe the atomic-scale structure of graphene, we used AFM to examine how the substrate dependent oxidation altered the nano- to micron-scale structure of graphene. It is known that in mechanically exfoliated graphene, thermal oxidation preferentially occurs at defect sites resulting in resolvable pits and linear cracks.19 In the case of CVD synthesized monolayer graphene, however, it has been reported that photochemical oxidation is non-selective and results in uniform oxidation of the graphene sheet.14 Consistent with these previously reported results, we did not observe the formation of any pits or line cracks on the graphene sheet after 30 minutes of UVO oxidation. Fig. 4 shows AFM and optical images of CuCVD–G, 300 nm-SiO2–G, and CuTrans–G samples after treatment in UVO for 30 minutes. Note that for CuCVD–G and CuTrans–G samples, the graphene was transferred to a silicon wafer after UVO oxidation and prior to the AFM analysis. The AFM images were taken near the graphene film edges to show contrast between the underlying silicon wafer and the graphene film.
In the cases of CuCVD–G and CuTrans–G we did not notice any significant microscopic defects other than occasional holes which may have formed during the transfer process. It should be noted that the CuTrans–G sample has been transferred twice – once onto copper foil prior to UVO treatment and again onto silicon wafer post-treatment – yet still showed little microscopic damage demonstrating that the transfer process does not significantly damage the film structure. For the case of 300 nm-SiO2–G, although a faint film structure was visible under optical microscopy, it was noted that there was very little contrast between the film and underlying silicon. Upon characterization of the 300 nm-SiO2–G sample with atomic force microscopy, it was found that the graphene film structure had actually degraded into patches or islands that were unresolvable using optical microscopy (Fig. 4e). Given the lack of 2D peak in the Raman spectrum of the 300 nm-SiO2–G sample and the patchy morphology of the carbon as seen under AFM, we believed that the UVO treatment has oxidized the 300 nm-SiO2–G sample into closely-spaced patches of amorphous carbon-like structure. This draws stark contrast with the intact film structure observed in the graphene samples that were either left on the growth copper foil or transferred onto annealed copper foil prior to UVO treatment, demonstrating the significant influence of the underlying substrate on the reactivity of graphene.
We hypothesize that this substrate dependent oxidation is due to varying amounts of attraction between the graphene film and underlying substrate. As oxygen functionalities are added onto the graphene lattice, the planar sp2 structure of graphene is destroyed as sp3 hybridized carbon atoms form out-of-plane protrusions. Energetically, this increase in distance between the carbon atom and substrate surface requires an additional energy cost. Thus, we believe that the adhesion energy of the graphene and underlying substrate could be a significant factor that influences the susceptibility of graphene to undergo addition of oxygen functionalities during UVO oxidation.
In the case of CVD monolayer graphene on its growth copper foil, Yoon et al. found the adhesion energy between graphene and the copper foil, measured by double cantilever beam fracture mechanics,20 to be 0.72 ± 0.07 J m−2. Na et al., through the use of coupling interferometry,21 found the adhesion energy of wet transferred CVD graphene and silicon to be 0.357 ± 0.016 J m−2. These adhesion energy values are qualitatively consistent with our hypothesis that the adhesion energy between graphene and the substrate relates to the amount of oxidation incurred in UVO treatments. The graphene that was transferred onto silicon wafer has a lower adhesion energy and so the formation of out-of-plane sp3 carbon centers is not as energetically expensive as in the cases of copper foil-supported samples. Similarly, it is interesting to note that graphene that was transferred onto annealed copper foil, CuTrans–G, underwent greater oxidation than the un-transferred pristine CuCVD–G sample. This may be attributed to a greater average distance between the graphene and copper surface brought about by molecular and nanoscale impurities from the transferring process in the case of CuTrans–G. These impurities weaken the adhesion between the graphene and copper surface, resulting in greater reactivity for the CuTrans–G sample.
In addition to varying adhesion energies between the graphene and underlying substrates, we note that other factors may also be at play. For example, owing to the difference in the wettability of the underlying substrates, the amount of water or O3 adsorbed or trapped in the samples may vary significantly.22–24 Such difference in the adsorbed/trapped water or O3 may also contribute to the observed substrate-dependence in the photochemical oxidation. Last but not least, the presence of substrate may alter the type and amount of photo-generated radical intermediates.
Footnote |
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental details, Fig. S1 and S2. See DOI: 10.1039/c5ra20713d |
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2016 |