Low-temperature growth of graphene by chemical vapor deposition using solid and liquid carbon sources

Graphene has attracted a lot of research interest owing to its exotic properties and a wide spectrum of potential applications. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) from gaseous hydrocarbon sources has shown great promises for large-scale graphene growth. However, high growth temperature, typically 1000 °C, is required for such growth. Here we demonstrate a revised CVD route to grow graphene on Cu foils at low temperature, adopting solid and liquid hydrocarbon feedstocks. For solid PMMA and polystyrene precursors, centimeter-scale monolayer graphene films are synthesized at a growth temperature down to 400 °C. When benzene is used as the hydrocarbon source, monolayer graphene flakes with excellent quality are achieved at a growth temperature as low as 300 °C. The successful low-temperature growth can be qualitatively understood from the first principles calculations. Our work might pave a way to an undemanding route for economical and convenient graphene growth.