Macroscopic, freestanding, and tubular graphene architectures fabricated via thermal annealing.
Manipulation of individual graphene sheets/films into specific architectures at macroscopic scales is crucially important for practical uses of graphene. We present herein a versatile and robust method based on annealing of solid carbon precursors on nickel templates and thermo-assisted removal of poly(methyl methacrylate) under low vacuum of ∼0.6 Pa for fabrication of macroscopic, freestanding, and tubular graphene (TG) architectures. Specifically, the TG architectures can be obtained as individual and woven tubes with a diameter of ∼50 μm, a wall thickness in the range of 2.1-2.9 nm, a density of ∼1.53 mg·cm(-3), a thermal stability up to 600 °C in air, an electrical conductivity of ∼1.48 × 10(6) S·m(-1), and field emission current densities on the order of 10(4) A·cm(-2) at low applied electrical fields of 0.6-0.7 V·μm(-1). These properties show great promise for applications in flexible and lightweight electronics, electron guns, or X-ray tube sources.
†Toyota Technological Institute, 2-12-1 Hisakata, Tempaku, Nagoya 468-8511, Japan.
Duc Dung
DD
Nguyen
†Toyota Technological Institute, 2-12-1 Hisakata, Tempaku, Nagoya 468-8511, Japan.
Seiya
S
Suzuki
‡Faculty of Science and Engineering, Meijo University, 1-501 Shiogamaguchi, Tempaku, Nagoya 468-8502, Japan.
Shuji
S
Kato
§Department of Physics, National Chung Cheng University, Min Hsiung, Chiayi 621, Taiwan.
Bao Dong
BD
To
§Department of Physics, National Chung Cheng University, Min Hsiung, Chiayi 621, Taiwan.
Chia Chen
CC
Hsu
‡Faculty of Science and Engineering, Meijo University, 1-501 Shiogamaguchi, Tempaku, Nagoya 468-8502, Japan.
Hidekazu
H
Murata
‡Faculty of Science and Engineering, Meijo University, 1-501 Shiogamaguchi, Tempaku, Nagoya 468-8502, Japan.
Eiji
E
Rokuta
∥Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Tsing-Hua University, Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan.
Nyan-Hwa
NH
Tai
†Toyota Technological Institute, 2-12-1 Hisakata, Tempaku, Nagoya 468-8511, Japan.
Masamichi
M
Yoshimura
field electron emission; graphene tubes; liquid−liquid separation; macroscopic graphene; thermal annealing