Chemical Self Assembly of Graphene Sheets

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a novel method for self-assembling graphene sheets onto gold structures using electrostatic interactions, enabling the creation of graphene-based electrical devices and sensors with high sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a new self-assembly technique for graphene sheets on substrates and shows their application in fabricating electrical devices and sensors.

Findings

Successful self-assembly of graphene on gold structures.

Restoration of electrical conductance via electrical annealing.

High sensitivity gas detection using self-assembled graphene sensors.

Abstract

Chemically derived graphene sheets were found to self-assemble onto patterned gold structures via electrostatic interactions between noncovalent functional groups on GS and gold. This afforded regular arrays of single graphene sheets on large substrates, characterized by scanning electron and Auger microscopy imaging and Raman spectroscopy. Self assembly was used for the first time to produce on-substrate and fully-suspended graphene electrical devices. Molecular coatings on the GS were removed by high current electrical annealing, which recovered the high electrical conductance and Dirac point of the GS. Molecular sensors for highly sensitive gas detections are demonstrated with self-assembled GS devices.