title: Edge-controlled growth and kinetics of single-crystal graphene domains by chemical vapor deposition.
abstract: The controlled growth of large-area, high-quality, single-crystal graphene is highly desired for applications in electronics and optoelectronics; however, the production of this material remains challenging because the atomistic mechanism that governs graphene growth is not well understood. The edges of graphene, which are the sites at which carbon accumulates in the two-dimensional honeycomb lattice, influence many properties, including the electronic properties and chemical reactivity of graphene, and they are expected to significantly influence its growth. We demonstrate the growth of single-crystal graphene domains with controlled edges that range from zigzag to armchair orientations via growth-etching-regrowth in a chemical vapor deposition process. We have observed that both the growth and the etching rates of a single-crystal graphene domain increase linearly with the slanted angle of its edges from 0° to ∼19° and that the rates for an armchair edge are faster than those for a zigzag edge. Such edge-structure-dependent growth/etching kinetics of graphene can be well explained at the atomic level based on the concentrations of the kinks on various edges and allow the evolution and control of the edge and morphology in single-crystal graphene following the classical kinetic Wulff construction theory. Using these findings, we propose several strategies for the fabrication of wafer-sized, high-quality, single-crystal graphene.
authors.affiliation: Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Teng
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Wencai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Xiuyun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhibo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Li-Chang
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Xiu-Liang
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Hui-Ming
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Cheng
keywords: crystal growth; two-dimensional materials