Slow gold adatom diffusion on graphene: effect of silicon dioxide and hexagonal boron nitride substrates

We examine the nucleation kinetics of Au clusters on graphene and explore the relationship with layer number and underlying supporting substrate of graphene. Using the mean field theory of diffusion-limited aggregation, morphology patterns are semiquantitatively analyzed to obtain Au adatom effective diffusion constants and activation energies. Under specified assumptions, the Au adatom diffusion constant for single-layer graphene supported on SiO2 is ∼50 times smaller than that for hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)-supported graphene and on the order of 800 times smaller than that for multilayer graphite. Bilayer graphene on SiO2 shows a Au adatom diffusion constant similar to single-layer graphene on h-BN. Scanning probe data show that single-layer graphene is far flatter on h-BN than on SiO2. Two factors are proposed as contributing to the observed lower diffusion constants on single-layer graphene: local surface roughness and homogeneous loss of dispersion/van der Waals electronic stability in multilayers. Graphene Raman spectroscopy shows little charge transfer between Au nanoparticles and graphene.