(97f) Graphene-Based Materials and Their Applications

Thermal chemical vapor deposition has been used to grow graphene on copper substrates [1] and isotopic labeling (13C vs 12C [2]) to study the kinetics and mechanisms of the graphene growth on Cu [3]. This talk presents a suggested path for obtaining large area growth of high quality graphene in ways compatible with methods of the semiconductor industry. We will also discuss the potential for use of graphene as a transparent electrically conductive thin film [4a, b, c] and graphene-based ultracapacitors [5]. Our top-down approaches [6,7] inspired physicists to study individual layers of graphite obtained by micromechanical exfoliation, while another productive direction has been to convert graphite to graphite oxide (GO), generate aqueous colloidal suspensions containing individual layers of GO (we call them ?graphene oxide'), and to use these ?graphene oxide sheets' in a variety of ways, such as for making composites with polymers [8], silica [9], and ?paper-like' materials [10]. Time permitting, I will revisit our pioneering contributions in the use of such chemically modified graphenes in large quantities, which depend on preparing chemically modified graphenes as colloids [11].

Support of our work by DARPA, the state of Texas, UT Austin, and prior support by NASA and the NSF, is appreciated. Recent support on graphene-based ultracapacitors (NSF, DoE-SISGR, Graphene Energy Inc) as well as on graphene-based transparent conductive films (DARPA) is appreciated. Ruoff Group publications are at http://bucky-central.me.utexas.edu/publications.htm .

1. Xuesong Li, Weiwei Cai, Jinho An, Seyoung Kim, Junghyo Nah, Dongxing Yang, Richard Piner, Aruna Velamakanni, Inhwa Jung, Emanuel Tutuc, Sanjay K. Banerjee, Luigi Colombo, Rodney S. Ruoff, Large-Area Synthesis of High-Quality and Uniform Graphene Films on Copper Foils, Science (2009), 324, 1312-1314.

2. Cai, Weiwei; Piner, Richard D.; Stadermann, Frank J.; Park, Sungjin; Shaibat, Medhat A.; Ishii, Yoshitaka; Yang, Dongxing; Velamakanni, Aruna; An, Sung Jin; Stoller, Meryl; An, Jinho; Chen, Dongmin; Ruoff, Rodney S. Synthesis and Solid-State NMR Structural Characterization of 13C-Labeled Graphite Oxide. Science (2008), 321(5897),1815-1817.

3. Xuesong Li; Weiwei Cai; Luigi Colombo; Rodney S. Ruoff. Evolution of Graphene Growth on Ni and Cu by Carbon Isotope Labeling. Nano Letters (2009).Meryl D. Stoller; Sungjin Park; Yanwu Zhu; Jinho An; Rodney S. Ruoff.

4. (a). X. S. Li, Y. W. Zhu, W. W. Cai, M. Borysiak, B. Y. Han, D. Chen, R. D. Piner, L. Colombo, R. S. Ruoff, Transfer of large-area graphene films for high-performance transparent conductive electrodes, Nano Letters, ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/nl902623y (2009). (b). Weiwei Cai, Yanwu Zhu, Xuesong Li, Richard D. Piner, and Rodney S. Ruoff. Large area few-layer graphene/graphite films as transparent thin conducting electrodes. Applied Physics Letters (2009), 95, 123115; (c). Yanwu Zhu, Weiwei Cai, Richard D. Piner, Aruna Velamakanni, and Rodney S. Ruoff. Transparent self-assembled films of reduced graphene oxide platelets. Applied Physics Letters (2009), 95, 103104.

5. Meryl D. Stoller; Sungjin Park; Yanwu Zhu; Jinho An; Rodney S. Ruoff. Graphene-Based Ultracapacitors. Nano Letters (2008), 8 (10), 3498-3502.

6. Lu XK, Yu MF, Huang H, and Ruoff RS, Tailoring graphite with the goal of achieving single sheets, Nanotechnology, 10, 269-272 (1999).

7. Lu XK, Huang H, Nemchuk N, and Ruoff RS, Patterning of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite by oxygen plasma etching, Applied Physics Letters, 75, 193-195 (1999).

8. Sasha Stankovich, Dmitriy A. Dikin, Geoffrey H. B. Dommett, Kevin M. Kohlhaas, Eric J. Zimney, Eric A. Stach, Richard D. Piner, SonBinh T. Nguyen and Rodney S. Ruoff, Graphene-based composite materials, Nature 442 (2006) 282-285.

9. Supinda Watcharotone, Dimitry A. Dikin, Sasha Stankovich, Richard Piner, Inhwa Jung, Geoffrey H. B. Dommett, Guennadi Evmenenko, Shang-En Wu, Shu-Fang Chen, Chuan-Pu Liu, SonBinh T. Nguyen, Rodney S. Ruoff. Graphene-Silica Composite Thin Films as Transparent Conductors. Nano Letters, 7(7), (2007), 1888-1892.

10. Dmitriy, A. Dikin, Sasha Stankovich, Eric J. Zimney, Richard D. Piner, Geoffrey H. B. Dommett, Guennadi Evmenenko, SonBinh T. Nguyen, Rodney S. Ruoff. Preparation and characterization of graphene oxide paper. Nature, 448, (2007), 457-460.

11. Park, Sungjin; Ruoff, Rodney S. Chemical methods for the production of graphenes. Nature Nanotechnology (2009), 4, 217-224.