Chemically Induced Transformation of CVD-Grown Bilayer Graphene into Single Layer Diamond

TL;DR

This study provides experimental evidence that fluorination of CVD-grown bilayer graphene induces a phase transition into a single-layer diamond-like structure, confirmed through multiple spectroscopic and microscopic techniques.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates the first comprehensive experimental proof of converting bilayer graphene into a diamond monolayer via fluorination, supported by extensive spectroscopic and computational analysis.

Findings

Fluorination induces interlayer C-C bond formation.

Transition from bilayer graphene to diamond monolayer confirmed.

Multiple spectroscopic techniques verify the phase change.

Abstract

Notwithstanding numerous density functional studies on the chemically induced transformation of multilayer graphene into a diamond-like film, a comprehensive convincing experimental proof of such a conversion is still lacking. We show that the fluorination of graphene sheets in Bernal (AB)-stacked bilayer graphene (AB-BLG) grown by chemical vapor deposition on a single crystal CuNi(111) surface triggers the formation of interlayer carbon-carbon bonds, resulting in a fluorinated diamond monolayer (F-diamane). Induced by fluorine chemisorption, the phase transition from AB-BLG to single layer diamond was studied and verified by X-ray photoelectron, ultraviolet photoelectron, Raman, UV-Vis, electron energy loss spectroscopies, transmission electron microscopy, and DFT calculations.