Chemical vapor synthesis of high-quality centimeter-sized crystals of monolayer graphene

Graphene is a two-dimensional material composed of carbon atoms tightly packed into a hexagonal lattice. Although graphite, its 3-D counterpart, has been used for several centuries by humankind, graphene was not discovered until 2004 in its isolated and observable form. Owing to its unique combination of exceptional physical properties, graphene gathered a great deal of interest among the scientific community which aspires to incorporate it into a wide range of technological applications, thereby looking forward to boost their performances. The main challenge to be addressed before industrializing graphene-based practical applications lies in developing a scalable, cost-efficient production technique. In this context, the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on copper catalyst is considered as the most promising way to synthesize graphene. Unfortunately, CVD-grown graphene, due to its polycrystalline nature, contains structural defects that adversely impact graphene’s physical properties. Moreover, the CVD growth of graphene is not only limited to a single layer but can result in the formation of bi- or multi-layer graphene which exhibit other physical properties. This doctoral thesis focuses on developing tools allowing the production of large-area high-quality graphene with a controllable number of layers and fostering its integration in potential advanced technological applications. This thesis thus involves (i) studying various types of Cu catalytic substrates, (ii) devising a chemical vapor deposition setup that can reach a wide range of parameters and thus offering new possibilities in terms of graphene growth conditions, (iii) improving the understanding of fundamental graphene growth mechanisms indispensable for the production of graphene with minimal crystalline defects and, (iv) developing an efficient and reliable method for transferring graphene onto desired device-compatible substrates.(FSA - Sciences de l'ingénieur) -- UCL, 201