Annealing Free, Clean Graphene Transfer using Alternative Polymer Scaffolds

TL;DR

This study introduces a novel, annealing-free graphene transfer method using poly(bisphenol A carbonate) scaffolds, resulting in cleaner, less doped graphene suitable for advanced nanomaterial applications.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that PC scaffolds enable cleaner, annealing-free transfer of graphene and other 2D materials, outperforming traditional polymer scaffolds.

Findings

PC scaffolds produce the cleanest graphene transfers

Graphene transferred with PC has lower roughness and doping

The method is applicable to multilayer graphene, fluorinated graphene, and h-BN

Abstract

We examine the transfer of graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with polymer scaffolds of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), poly(lactic acid) (PLA), poly(phthalaldehyde) (PPA), and poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (PC). We find that optimally reactive PC scaffolds provide the cleanest graphene transfers without any annealing, after extensive comparison with optical microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and scanning tunneling microscopy. Comparatively, films transferred with PLA, PPA, and PMMA have a two-fold higher roughness and a five-fold higher chemical doping. Using PC scaffolds, we demonstrate the clean transfer of CVD multilayer graphene, fluorinated graphene, and hexagonal boron nitride. Our annealing free, PC transfers enable the use of atomically-clean nanomaterials in biomolecule encapsulation and flexible electronic applications.