Easy Approach to Graphene Growth on Ir(111) and Ru(0001) from Liquid Ethanol

Abstract

Abstract The growth of a high‐quality complete graphene layer is successfully achieved for Ir(111) and Ru(0001) substrates using liquid ethanol as a precursor. Metallic substrates, which are cleaned in ultra‐high vacuum conditions, were ex‐situ immersed in liquid ethanol followed by the controlled in situ thermal annealing. The process of graphene formation and its quality are carefully monitored using X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, low‐energy electron diffraction, and scanning tunneling microscopy methods. It is found that graphene formation starts at 400 °C via ethanol decomposition and desorption of oxygen from the surface leading to the formation of the high‐quality complete graphene layer at 1000 °C. The results of the systematic angular‐resolved photoelectron spectroscopy experiments confirm the high quality of the obtained graphene layer, and it concludes that such an approach offers an easy, quick, and reproducible method to synthesize large‐scale graphene on different metallic substrates.

Keywords

• angular‐resolved photoelectron spectroscopy
• density functional theory
• graphene
• low‐energy electron diffraction
• metals
• scanning tunnelling microscopy