Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth of Uniform, Monolayer Graphene by Improving the Texture of Copper Foil

Uniform monolayer graphene synthesis on commercial copper foils by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition is still challenging due to the rough texture of foils. We present a facile method that improves the texture of foils to achieve uniform monolayer graphene growth. Hydrogen flow was stopped during our graphene synthesis and it was found that even with 1 minute of growth time on thermally annealed foils, graphene number of layers showed large variation. Surprisingly by evaporating a thin copper film (200 nm) on foils and then carrying out growth under same conditions lead to a uniform monolayer graphene synthesis, which was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. Our approach of ceasing Hydrogen flow during graphene growth can lead to a significant reduction in growth time as the substrate size is scaled while still maintaining the spatial uniformity of monolayer graphene. Also, we report an optimized PMMA free, graphene transfer procedure to an insulating substrate.