title: Direct Synthesis of Few-Layer Graphene on NaCl Crystals.
abstract: Chemical vapor deposition is used to synthesize few-layer graphene on micro crystalline sodium chloride (NaCl) powder. The water-soluble nature of NaCl makes it convenient to produce free standing graphene layers via a facile and low-cost approach. Unlike traditional metal-catalyzed or oxygen-aided growth, the micron-size NaCl crystal planes play an important role in the nucleation and growth of few-layer graphene. Moreover, the possibility of synthesizing cuboidal graphene is also demonstrated in the present approach for the first time. Raman spectroscopy, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy are used to evaluate the quality and structure of the few-layer graphene along with cuboidal graphene obtained in this process. The few-layer graphene synthesized using the present method has an adsorption ability for anionic and cationic dye molecules in water. The present synthesis method may pave a facile way for manufacturing few-layer graphene on a large scale.
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanochemistry (CNC), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Liurong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanochemistry (CNC), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanochemistry (CNC), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Centre of Polymer and Carbon Materials, Polish Academy of Sciences, M. Curie-Sklodowskiej 34, Zabrze, 41-819, Poland.
authors.forename: Alicja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bachmatiuk
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Science, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 440-746, Republic of Korea.|Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 440-746, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Mark Hermann
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Rümmeli
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanochemistry (CNC), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Manish Kumar
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Priydarshi
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanochemistry (CNC), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yanfeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 26507, USA.|US Department of Energy, NETL, Morgantown, WV, 26507, USA.
authors.forename: Ayyakkannu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manivannan
authors.affiliation: Center for Nanochemistry (CNC), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhongfan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: chemical vapor deposition; cuboid structures; graphene; water-soluble substrates