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Bi-layer Graphene (Image 2)
A team of researchers at the Nanoelectronics Research Lab (NRL) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, view a dish with a sheet of graphene. Pictured left to right are: Hong Li, Wei Liu, Yasin Khatami, Professor Kaustav Banerjee and Chuan Xu. The team successfully controlled the growth of high-quality, bi-layered graphene on a copper substrate using a method called chemical vapor deposition (CVD), which breaks down molecules of methane gas to build graphene sheets with carbon atoms. The discovery could pave the way for next-generation electronics application.
Banerjee, a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and director of NRL, led the research team that perfected the methods of growing the graphene sheets. Says Banerjee, "For the electronics industry to effectively use graphene it must first be grown selectively and in larger sheets. We have developed a synthesis technique that yields high-quality and high-uniformity graphene that can be translated into a scalable process for industry applications."
The discovery turns graphene production into an industry-friendly process by improving the quality and uniformity of graphene using efficient and reproducible methods. The team was able to control the number of graphene layers produced--from mono-layer to bi-layer graphene--an important distinction for future applications in electronics and other technology.
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant CCF 08-11880. This work made use of the Materials Research Laboratory central facilities at UCSB, supported by the NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) program (under grant DMR 05-20415).
To learn more about this research, see the UCSB news release Growth of High Quality Graphene by UCSB Researchers a Critical Discovery for Producing Next Generation Electronics. (Date of Image: October 2011) [Image 2 of 2 related images. See Image 1.]
Credit: Peter Allen, University of California, Santa Barbara
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