Synthesis of millimeter-size hexagon-shaped graphene single crystals on resolidified copper

We present a facile method to grow millimeter-size, hexagon-shaped, monolayer, single-crystal graphene domains on commercial metal foils. After a brief in situ treatment, namely, melting and subsequent resolidification of copper at atmospheric pressure, a smooth surface is obtained, resulting in the low nucleation density necessary for the growth of large-size single-crystal graphene domains. Comparison with other pretreatment methods reveals the importance of copper surface morphology and the critical role of the melting-resolidification pretreatment. The effect of important growth process parameters is also studied to determine their roles in achieving low nucleation density. Insight into the growth mechanism has thus been gained. Raman spectroscopy and selected area electron diffraction confirm that the synthesized millimeter-size graphene domains are high-quality monolayer single crystals with zigzag edge terminations.