Structural Investigation of the Synthesized Few-Layer Graphene from Coal under Microwave

This study focused on the structural investigation of few-layer graphene (FLG) synthesis from bituminous coal through a catalytic process under microwave heat treatment (MW). The produced FLG has been examined by Raman spectroscopy, XRD, TEM, and AFM. Coal was activated using the potassium hydroxide activation process. The FLG synthesis processing duration was much faster requiring only 20 min under the microwave radiation. To analyse few-layer graphene samples, we considered the three bands, i.e., D, G, and 2D, of Raman spectra. At 1300 °C, the P10% Fe sample resulted in fewer defects than the other catalyst percentages sample. The catalyst percentages affected the structural change of the FLG composite materials. In addition, the Raman mapping showed that the catalyst loaded sample was homogeneously distributed and indicated a few-layer graphene sheet. In addition, the AFM technique measured the FLG thickness around 4.5 nm. Furthermore, the HRTEM images of the P10% Fe sample contained a unique morphology with 2–7 graphitic layers of graphene thin sheets. This research reported the structural revolution with latent feasibility of FLG synthesis from bituminous coal in a wide range.

Fabrication of encapsulated graphene-based heterostructure using molybdenum as edge-contacts

Graphene is an intriguing platform to study exotic quantum transport phenomena due to its intrinsically high mobility and remarkable electronic properties. To achieve high-performance device, graphene is usually encapsulated between thin sheets of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) to protect graphene layer from extrinsic impurities. Cr/Au is typically employed to make contacts with the edges of the heterostructure. In this research, Mo is used as an alternative electrode for graphene without adhesion layer to simplify the fabrication process. hBN-graphene-hBN heterostructures were fabricated by a pick-up technique and etched in O2/CHF3 gases to expose graphene edges. Mo contacts were deposited onto the substrates by sputtering. We achieved ohmic contacts between graphene and Mo. The contact resistance reaches the maximum of around 1,300 Ω·μm at charge neutrality point and decreases to 975 Ω·μm at the density of 4×1012 cm−2. We observed that the contact resistance increases over time likely due to the oxidation of Mo but remained ohmic after 2 months. The intrinsic transport characteristics of graphene can still be obtained by using four-probe measurement. Here, we realized a high-quality twisted bilayer graphene device with a room-temperature mobility of 27,000 cm2/V·s indicating that Mo can be used as edge-contacts to probe the transport properties of graphene.