• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2019

Graphene is a fascinating material for fabricating flexible and transparent devices owing to its thickness and mechanical properties. To utilize graphene as a core material for devices, the transfer process of graphene is an inevitable step. The transfer process can be classified into wet and dry methods depending on the surrounding environment. The adhesion between graphene and a target substrate determines the success or failure of the transfer process. As the surface energy of graphene is an important parameter that provides adhesion, it is useful to estimate the surface energy to understand the mechanisms of the transfer process. However, the exact surface energy of graphene is still disputed because the wetting transparency of graphene depends on the polarity of the liquid and target substrate. Previously reported results use graphene transferred by the wet method. However, there are few reports on the surface energy of graphene transferred by the dry method. In this study, the surface energy of graphene transferred by the wet and dry methods is estimated. Wetting transparency occurs for certain combinations of liquids and substrates. For graphene on a polar substrate, the surface energy decreases by 25 and 35% for the wet and dry transfer methods, respectively. However, the surface energy of graphene on dispersive substrates decreases by ~10% regardless of the transfer method. In conclusion, the surface energy of graphene is $36{\sim}38mJ/m^2$, and differs depending on the transfer method and polarity of the substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.186.1-186.1
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• 2014

Graphene, which is a 2-dimensional carbon material, has been attracting much interest due to its unique properties and potential applications. So far, many interesting experimental and theoretical works have been done concerning the electronic properties of graphene on various substrates. Especially, there are many experimental reports about doping in graphene which is caused by interaction between graphene and its supporting substrates. Here, we report the study of charge transfer between graphene and oxide substrates using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In this study, we have investigated the charge transfer related with graphene considering various oxide substrates such as SiO2(0001) and MgO(111). Details in charge transfer between graphene and oxides are analyzed in terms of charge density difference, band structure and work function.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2019

In this study, a method to remove residual powder on a multi-layered graphene and a new approach to transfer multi-layered graphene at once are studied. A graphene one-step transfer (GOST) method is conducted to minimize the residual powder comparison with a layer-by-layer transfer. Furthermore, a residual powder removing process is investigated to remove residual powder at the top of a multi-layered graphene. After residual powder is removed, the sheet resistance of graphene is decreased from 393 to 340 Ohm/sq in a four-layered graphene. In addition, transmittance slightly increases after residual powder is removed from the top of the multi-layered graphene. Optical and atomic-force microscopy images are used to analyze the graphene surface, and the Ra value is reduced from 5.2 to 3.7 nm following residual powder removal. Therefore, GOST and residual powder removal resolve the limited application of graphene electrodes due to residual powder.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.60-66
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• 2018

Graphene is a monolayer of carbon atoms (approximately 0.34 nm), arranged in a honeycomb network. It has been hailed as a next-generation flexible and transparent material because it has high electrical and thermal conductivities, excellent mechanical properties, as well as flexible and transparent properties. The wettability of graphene alters its adhesion or surface energy, and it is therefore an important parameter influencing its application in the fabrication of next-generation flexible and transparent electronics. Studies on the wettability of graphene are numerous and various opinions exist. However, almost all of these studies use the wet transfer method to transfer the graphene. In this study, therefore, we investigated the effect of wet and dry transfer methods on water contact angles of graphene on a substrate. The contact angles of substrates vary depending on the type of substrate. It was found that after graphene is transferred to the substrate, regardless of transfer method, the graphene/substrate contact angle increases to a value. The contact angle of graphene transferred using the dry transfer method is higher than the contact angle of graphene transferred using wet transfer methods. The wet transferred graphene is affected by the poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) residue and the polar surface of substrate. The dry transferred graphene is influenced by the conformal contact between graphene and substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.232.2-232.2
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• 2014

Since its discovery in 2004, graphene, a sp2-hybridized 2-Dimension carbon material, has drawn enormous attention. A variety of approaches have been attempted, such as epitaxial growth from silicon carbide, chemical reduction of graphene oxide and CVD. Among these approaches, the CVD process takes great attention due to its guarantee of high quality and large scale with high yield on various transition metals. After synthesis of graphene on metal substrate, the subsequent transfer process is needed to transfer graphene onto various target substrates, such as bubbling transfer, renewable epoxy transfer and wet etching transfer. However, those transfer processes are hard to control and inevitably induce defects to graphene film. Especially for wet etching transfer, the metal substrate is totally etched away, which is horrendous resources wasting, time consuming, and unsuitable for industry production. Thus, our group develops one-step process to directly grow graphene on glass substrate in plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Copper foil is used as catalyst to enhance the growth of graphene, as well as a temperature shield to provide relatively low temperature to glass substrate. The effect of growth time is reported that longer growth time will provide lower sheet resistance and higher VSG flakes. The VSG with conductivity of $800{\Omega}/sq$ and thickness of 270 nm grown on glass substrate can be obtained under 12 min growing time. The morphology is clearly showed by SEM image and Raman spectra that VSG film is composed of base layer of amorphous carbon and vertically arranged graphene flakes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.659-659
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• 2013

Recently, graphene has been intensively studied due to the fascinating physical, chemical and electrical properties. It shows high carrier mobility, high current density, and high thermal conductivity compare with conventional semiconductor materials even it has single atomic thickness. Especially, since graphene has fantastic electrical properties many researchers are believed that graphene will be replacing Si based technology. In order to realize it, we need to prepare the large and uniform graphene. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method is the most promising technique for synthesizing large and uniform graphene. Unfortunately, CVD method requires transfer process from metal catalyst. In transfer process, supporting polymer film (Such as poly (methyl methacrylate)) is widely used for protecting graphene. After transfer process, polymer layer is removed by organic solvents. However, it is impossible to remove it completely. These organic residues on graphene surface induce quality degradation of graphene since it disturbs movement of electrons. Thus, in order to get an intrinsic property of graphene completely remove of the organic residues is the most important. Here, we introduce modified wet graphene transfer method without PMMA. First of all, we grow the graphene from Cu foil using CVD method. And then, we deposited several metal films on graphene for transfer layer instead of PMMA. Finally, we fabricate graphene FET devices. Our approaches show low defect density and non-organic residues in comparison with PMMA coated graphene through Raman spectroscopy, SEM and AFM. In addition, clean graphene FET shows intrinsic electrical characteristic and high carrier mobility.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.522-527
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• 2022

Among efforts to improve techniques for the chemical vapor deposition of large-area and high-quality graphene films on transition metal substrates, being able to reliably transfer these atomistic membranes onto the desired substrate is a critical step for various practical uses, such as graphene-based electronic and photonic devices. However, the most used approach, the wet etching transfer process based on the complete etching of metal substrates, remains a great challenge. This is mainly due to the inevitable damage to the graphene, unintentional contamination of the graphene layer, and increased production cost and time. Here, we report the systematic study of an H₂ bubbling-assisted transfer technique for graphene films grown on Cu foils, which is nondestructive not only to the graphene film but also to the Cu substrate. Also, we demonstrate the origin of the graphene film tearing phenomenon induced by this H₂ bubbling-assisted transfer process. This study reveals that inherent features are produced by rolling Cu foil, which cause a saw-like corrugation in the poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/graphene stack when it is transferred onto the target substrate after the Cu foil is dissolved. During the PMMA removal stage, the graphene tearing mainly appears at the apexes of the corrugated PMMA/graphene stack, due to weak adhesion to the target substrate. To address this, we have developed a modified heat-press-assisted transfer technique that has much better control of both tearing and the formation of residues in the transferred graphene films.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.7-11
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• 2017

In this study, multilayered graphene was easily transferred to the target substrate in one step using thermal release tape. The transmittance of the transferred graphene according to the number of layers was measured using a spectrophotometer. The sheet resistance was measured using a four-point probe system. Graphene formed using this transfer method showed almost the same electrical and optical properties as that formed using the conventional poly (methyl methacrylate) transfer method. This method is suitable for the mass production of graphene because of the short process time and easy large-area transfer. In addition, multilayered graphene can be transferred on various substrates without wetting problem using the one-step dry transfer method. In this work, this easy transfer method was used for dielectric substrates such as glass, paper and polyethylene terephthalate, and a sheet resistance of ~240 ohm/sq was obtained with three-layer graphene. By fabricating organic solar cells, we verified the feasibility of using this method for optoelectronic devices.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.53-62
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• 2015

Boiling heat transfer characteristic is very important in the various industries such as solar thermal system, power generation, heat exchangers, cooling of high-power electronics components and cooling of nuclear reactors. Therefore, in this study, boiling heat transfer characteristics such as critical heat flux (CHF) and heat transfer coefficient under the pool boiling state were tested using graphene nanofluids. Graphene used in this study, which have the same thermal conductivity but with different sizes. The experimental results showed that the highest the CHF and boiling heat transfer coefficient increase ratio for graphene nanofluids was at the 0.01 vol.%. At the present juncture, the CHF and boiling heat transfer coefficient increase ratio of the small-sized graphene nanofluids was higher than the large-sized graphene nanofluids.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.59-64
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• 2014

Transfer is the critical issue of producing high-quality and scalable graphene electronic devices. However, conventional transfer processes require the removal of an underlying metal layer by wet etching process, which induces significant economic and environmental problems. We propose the etching-free mechanical releasing of graphene using polymer adhesives. A fracture mechanics approach was introduced to understand the releasing mechanism and ensure highyield process. It is shown that the thickness of adhesive and target substrate affect the transferability of graphene. Based on experimental and fracture mechanics simulation results, we further observed that compliant adhesives can reduce the adhesive stress during the transfer, which also enhances the success probability of graphene transfer.