Growth of Low-Defect Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Film Using Condensation-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition Method

It is significantly important to modulate the electrical properties of graphene films through doping for building desired electronic devices. One of the effective doping methods is the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of graphene films with heteroatom doping during the process, but this usually results in nitrogen-doped graphene with low doping levels, high defect density, and low carrier mobility. In this work, we developed a novel condensation-assisted CVD method for the synthesis of high-quality nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) films at low temperatures of 400 °C using solid 3,4,5-trichloropyridine as a carbon and nitrogen source. The condensation system was employed to reduce the volatilization of the solid source during the non-growth stage, which leads to a great improvement of quality of as-prepared NG films. Compared to the one synthesized using conventional CVD methods, the NG films synthesized using condensation-assisted CVD present extremely low defects with a ratio of from D- to G-peak intensity (I) in the Raman spectrum lower than 0.35. The corresponding total N content, graphitic nitrogen/total nitrogen ratio, and carrier mobility reach 3.2 at%, 67%, and 727 cm²V^-1S^-1, respectively. This improved condensation-assisted CVD method provides a facile and well-controlled approach for fabricating high-quality NG films, which would be very useful for building electronic devices with high electrical performance.