MeV Electron-Beam Induced Clusterization of Platinum Chloride on Graphene for Transparent Conductive Electrodes

Abstract

The use of graphene-based transparent conductive electrodes critically depends upon the enhancement of electrical conductivity with a negligible loss of optical transmittance of graphene. Hence, the hybridization of graphene and metal nanostructures has been intensively investigated to improve electrical conductivity. Here we demonstrate clusterization of PtCl2 on graphene by a facile method, MeV electron-beam irradiation (MEBI) under ambient conditions, as characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmittance electron microscopy, and resonant Raman spectroscopy. The workfunction difference between PtCl2 nanoclusters and graphene results in p-type doping of graphene, to achieve a reduced sheet resistance of 69.1 % with respect to that of pristine graphene while maintaining transmittance of 91.7 %. The mechanism of formation of PtCl2 nanoclusters on graphene is likely to be defect-mediated clusterization due to the high energy electron-beam.