Seong Kyu Lee

Substrate-induced solvent intercalation for stable graphene doping.

Here, we report a substrate-induced intercalation phenomenon of an organic solvent at the interface between monolayer graphene and a target substrate. A simple dipping of the transferred chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown graphene on the SiO₂ substrate into chloroform (CHCl₃, CF), a common organic solvent, induces a spontaneous formation of CF clusters beneath the basal plane of the graphene as well as inside the wrinkles. The microscopic and spectroscopic observations showed the doping behavior of monolayer graphene, which indicates the adsorption of CF to monolayer graphene. Interestingly, the intercalated organic solvent showed remarkable stability for over 40 days under ambient conditions. To reveal the underlying mechanism of the stable solvent intercalation, desorption energy of CF molecules at the graphene/substrate interface was measured using Arrhenius plots of the conductance change upon time and temperature. Two stages of solvent intercalations with high desorption energies (70 and 370 meV) were observed along with the consecutive shrinkage of the solvent clusters at the basal plane and the wrinkles, respectively. Moreover, the theoretical calculation based on density functional theory (DFT) also shows the strong intercalation energy of CF between monolayer graphene and the SiO₂ substrate, which results from the stabilization of the graphene-SiO₂ interactions. Furthermore, the thermal response of the conductance could be utilized to maintain a certain degree of p-doping of monolayer graphene, which provides the facile, sustainable, and controllable large-area doping method of graphene for future generation of printed flexible electronics.

Water‐Free Transfer Method for CVD‐Grown Graphene and Its Application to Flexible Air‐Stable Graphene Transistors

Transferring graphene without water enables water-sensitive substrates to be used in graphene electronics. A polymeric bilayer (PMMA/PBU) is coated on graphene as a supporting layer for the water-free transfer process and as an excellent passivation layer that enhances device operation.

Boosting Photon Harvesting in Organic Solar Cells with Highly Oriented Molecular Crystals via Graphene–Organic Heterointerface

Photon harvesting in organic solar cells is highly dependent on the anisotropic nature of the optoelectronic properties of photoactive materials. Here, we demonstrate an efficient approach to dramatically enhance photon harvesting in planar heterojunction solar cells by using a graphene-organic heterointerface. A large area, residue-free monolayer graphene is inserted at anode interface to serve as an atomically thin epitaxial template for growing highly orientated pentacene crystals with lying-down orientation. This anisotropic orientation enhances the overall optoelectronic properties, including light absorption, charge carrier lifetime, interfacial energetics, and especially the exciton diffusion length. Spectroscopic and crystallographic analysis reveal that the lying-down orientation persists until a thickness of 110 nm, which, along with increased exciton diffusion length up to nearly 100 nm, allows the device optimum thickness to be doubled to yield significantly enhanced light absorption within the photoactive layers. The resultant photovoltaic performance shows simultaneous increment in Voc, Jsc, and FF, and consequently a 5 times increment in the maximum power conversion efficiency than the equivalent devices without a graphene layer. The present findings indicate that controlling organic-graphene heterointerface could provide a design strategy of organic solar cell architecture for boosting photon harvesting.

Doping Graphene with an Atomically Thin Two Dimensional Molecular Layer

Atomically thin and chemically versatile GO sheets are used as p-type dopants of CVD-graphene. This method enables the strong, stable, large-scale, low-temperature, and controllable p-doping of graphene with preserved charge mobility, intrinsic roughness, and transmittance.

Inverse Transfer Method Using Polymers with Various Functional Groups for Controllable Graphene Doping

The polymer-supported transfer of chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown graphene provides large-area and high-quality graphene on a target substrate; however, the polymer and organic solvent residues left by the transfer process hinder the application of CVD-grown graphene in electronic and photonic devices. Here, we describe an inverse transfer method (ITM) that permits the simultaneous transfer and doping of graphene without generating undesirable residues by using polymers with different functional groups. Unlike conventional wet transfer methods, the polymer supporting layer used in the ITM serves as a graphene doping layer placed at the interface between the graphene and the substrate. Polymers bearing functional groups can induce n-doping or p-doping into the graphene depending on the electron-donating or -withdrawing characteristics of functional groups. Theoretical models of dipole layer-induced graphene doping offered insights into the experimentally measured change in the work function and the Dirac point of the graphene. Finally, the electrical properties of pentacene field effect transistors prepared using graphene electrodes could be enhanced by employing the ITM to introduce a polymer layer that tuned the work function of graphene. The versatility of polymer functional groups suggests that the method developed here will provide valuable routes to the development of applications of CVD-grown graphene in organic electronic devices.

Facet‐Mediated Growth of High‐Quality Monolayer Graphene on Arbitrarily Rough Copper Surfaces

A synthetic approach for high-quality graphene on rough Cu surfaces via chemical vapor deposition is proposed. High-quality graphene is synthesized on rough Cu surfaces by inducing surface faceting of Cu surfaces prior to graphene growth. The electron mobility of synthesized graphene on the rough Cu surfaces is enhanced to 10 335 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1).

Nanopatched Graphene with Molecular Self‐Assembly Toward Graphene–Organic Hybrid Soft Electronics

Increasing the mechanical durability of large-area polycrystalline single-atom-thick materials is a necessary step toward the development of practical and reliable soft electronics based on these materials. Here, it is shown that the surface assembly of organosilane by weak epitaxy forms nanometer-thick organic patches on a monolayer graphene surface and dramatically increases the materials resistance to harsh postprocessing environments, thereby increasing the number of ways in which graphene can be processed. The nanopatched graphene with the improved mechanical durability enables stable operation when used as transparent electrodes of wearable strain sensors. Also, the nanopatched graphene applied as an electrode modulates the molecular orientation of deposited organic semiconductor layers, and yields favorable nominal charge injection for organic transistors. These results demonstrate the potential for use of self-assembled organic nanopatches in graphene-based soft electronics.