Economical Approach for Graphene Fabrication via Home-Built CVD Technique Using Naturally Available Solid Carbon Sources

Abstract

Abstract In the present investigation, naphthalene and camphor have been used as solid-state carbon sources for graphene deposition on the copper substrate through home-built CVD technique. The effect of precursor concentrations on the quality of graphene has been discussed. Moreover, several experiments have been performed to study the effect of gasses used (Ar and H2) and the distance between precursor and substrate in the present investigation. The use of different concentrations of carbon source with respect to hydrogen gas concentration provided various carbon nanostructures like carbon nanofibers (CNF), few-layer graphene (FLG) and vertically aligned graphene (VAG). The defects in as-grown carbon nanostructures have been confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. For the sample with 10% naphthalene and 90% camphor at 25 cm apart from the substrate in the 9:1 ratio Ar and H2 gas environment, 2D and G band intensity ratio I2D/IG has been found as 0.6 which confirms few-layered graphene deposition. The surface morphology of deposited carbon nanostructures has been confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the microstructure of deposited graphene has been studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The functional groups attached to the deposited graphene have been characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).