Temperature effect on the nucleation of graphene on Cu (111)

Repeated thermal cycling by using an organic precursor is shown to be a successful technique for growing graphene on metal substrates. Having control on this process is of vital importance in producing large areas of high quality graphene with well-ordered surface characteristics, which leads us to investigate the effect of temperature on the microscopic mechanisms behind this process. Apart from being an important factor in the dissociation of the organic precursor and promoting the reactions taking place on the surface of the catalyst, temperature also plays a major role in the structure of the catalyst surface. First, we used eight thermal cycles to successfully grow graphene on the surface of Cu (111). Then, we employed Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics (AIMD) simulations to study graphene island alignment evolution at two temperatures. The results shed light on our experimental observations and those reported in the literature and point to the effectiveness of controlled thermal cycling in producing high quality graphene sheets on transition metal catalyst surfaces.