GRAPHENE: 2-D BEATS 3-D

Y.ANURADHA
Vignana Bharathi Institute of Technology,JNTUH,
Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Mail.ID: anucherukuri27@gmail.com

KOUNDINYA SVVS

ANANT SHAH

Vignana Bharathi Institute of Technology,JNTUH,

Vignana Bharathi Institute of Technology,JNTUH,

Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

Mail ID: koundinya123.svvs@gmail.com

Mail ID: shahanantn31@gmail.com

Phone no: 8790816725

Phone no: 9676504679

ABSTRACT:
Graphene, one of the strongest materials ever
discovered, is a 2-D grid arrangement of carbon
atoms
arranged in hexagonal shapes which is an
atom thick is believed to be a next huge step toward
technological advancements.
This paper focuses mainly on the information
about the
material of wonders (graphene) and
why exactly the material is considered to be
special, its reasons for existence despite of being
dimensionally challenged (2D), its properties and
reasons for its exemplary behaviour, preparation
methods and there by comparing the attributes
like quality,
size,
complexity
and
controllability of reaction and applications along
with the future scope of this semi-metal in this
era of science.

INTRODUCTION:
A thin flake of ordinary carbon, just
one atom thick, lies behind 2010's
Nobel Prize in Physics for ground
breaking reaserch on a 2D element.
Andre
Geim
and
Konstantin
Novoselov the recipients of noble

prize have shown that carbon in such

a flat form has exceptional properties
that originate from the remarkable
world of quantum physics.

Graphene can be aptly described as

monocrystalline
monocrystalline

Graphene is a single layer of

carbonlattice, with a carbon-carbon

graphitic films, which are a few

atoms thick but are nonetheless
stable under ambient conditions,
metallic, and of remarkably high
quality. The films are found to be a
two dimensional semimetal with a
tiny overlap between valence and
conductance bands, and they exhibit
a strong ambipolar electric field
effect such that electrons and holes
in concentrations up to 1013 per
square centimeter and with roomtemperature mobilities of ~10,000
square centimeters per volt-second
can be induced by applying gate
voltage.

distance of 0.142nm. It is the first

truly two-dimensional crystalline

What is Graphene?
Dimensionality is one of the most
defining material parameters. The
various structural forms of carbon
(polymorphism) give carbon a unique
variety
of
properties
and
applications.

lattice,
with
a
carbon-carbon
distance of 0.142 nm. It is the first
truly two dimensional crystalline
material.Graphene is a basic building
block for graphitic materials of all
otherdimensionalities
Graphene
Bilayer graphitic films Graphite
Graphene is stronger and stiffer
than diamond, yet can be stretched
by a quarter of its length, like rubber.
Its surface area is the largest known
for its weight. - Andre Geim
In graphene, sp2 hybridized orbitals
are responsible for bonding in the xy
plane, while the remaining 2p orbital
exists perpendicular to the plane,
contributing 1 conduction electron
per C atom.
Why is Graphene Interesting and
Significant?
Graphene is the first truly 2dimensional material that is stable at

room temperature. It is believed that

graphene will bring revolutionary
changes in microelectronics, material

temperature of thin films rapidly

decreases with decreasing thickness,
and the films become unstable

science and theoretical physics.

(segregate or decompose) at a
thickness of, typically, dozens of
atomic layers.

Imagine a piece of paper but a

million times thinner. This is
how thick graphene is.
Imagine a material stronger
than diamond. This is how
strong graphene is (in the
plane).
Imagine a material more
conducting than copper. This is
how conductive graphene is
Imagine a machine that can
test the same physics that
scientists test in, say, CERN,
but small enough to stand on
top of your table. Graphene
allows this to happen.
Having such a material in
hand, one can easily think of
many useful things that can
eventually come out. As
concerns new physics, no one
doubts about it already

The difficulties of obtaining 2dimensional crystals

The argument was later extended by
Mermin (1968) and is strongly
supported by many experimental
observations.The
melting

Before Geims team observed the

single atomic layer graphene, it was
believed that true 2D materials could
never exist, because it was thought
that any atomic monolayer would
have to roll or fold in order to
achieve its lowest potential energy.
Why is
stable?

monolayer

graphene

Using electron microscopy it has

been
observed
that
within
graphenemonolayers small ripples
exist.
These
imperfections
are
believed to prevent graphene from
rolling and also help to suppress
thermal vibrations.
The strong interatomic bonds ensure
that thermal fluctuations cannot lead
to the generation of dislocations or
other crystal defects even at room
temperature.
How to prepare graphene
Most known approaches to prepare graphene
are by

1. Exfoliation
2. Growing it on surfaces
1. Exfoliation
a) The Scotch Tape Method
In
this
micromechanical
exfoliation
method,graphene is detached from a graphite
crystal using adhesive tape. After peeling it off

Graphene can be prepared in liquid-phase.This

allows upscaling the production, in order to
obtain a much higher amount of graphene. The
easiest method would be to disperse the
graphite in an organic solvent with nearly the
same surface energy as graphite [1]. Thereby,
the energy barrier is reduced, which has to be
overcome in order to detach a graphene layer
from the crystal. The solution is then sonicated
in an ultrasound bath for several hundreds
hours or a voltage is applied [2]. After the
dispersion, the solution has to be centrifuged
in order to dispose of the thicker flakes.The
quality of the obtained graphene flakes is very
high in accordance with the micromechanical
exfoliation. Its size however is still very small,
neither is the controllability given. On the
other hand, the complexity is very low, and as
mentioned above this method allows preparing
large amounts of graphene.
c)Graphite Oxide Exfoliation

the graphite, multiple-layer graphene remains

on the tape. By repeated peeling themultiplelayer graphene is cleaved into various flakes of
few-layer graphene. Afterwards the tape is
attached to the substrate and theglue solved,
e.g. by acetone, in order to detach the tape.
Finally one last peeling with an unused tape is
performed.
The obtained flakes differ considerably in size
and thickness, where the sizes range from
nanometers to several tens of micrometers for
single-layer graphene, depending on the
preparation of the used wafer. Singlelayer
graphene has a absorption rate of
2%,nevertheless it is possible to see it under a
light microscope on SiO2/Si, due to
interference effects [3]. However, it is difficult
to obtain larger amounts of graphene by this
method, not even taking into account the lack
of controllability. The complexity of this
method is basically low, nevertheless the
graphene flakes need to be found on the
substrate surface, which is labour intensive.
The quality of the prepared graphene is very
high with almost no defects.
b) Dispersion of Graphite

Figure 1: (a) Solution of graphene in liquidphase. The flasks contain solutions after
centrifugation at different frequencies [1].
(b)Scheme of the exfoliation of graphite oxide.
The graphite gets oxidized and solved in
water. Afterwards it gets reduced to graphene
[3].

The principle of liquid-phase exfoliation can

also be used to exfoliate graphite oxide. Due to
several functional groups like epoxide or
hyroxyl, graphene oxide is hydrophilic and can
be solved in water by sonication or stirring.
Thereby the layers become negatively charged
and thus a recombination is inhibited by the
electrical repulsion. After centrifugation the
graphene oxide has to be reduced to regular
graphene by thermal or chemical methods. It is
hardly possible to dispose of all the oxygen. In
fact, an atomic C/O ratio of about 10 still
remains [3].The performance of this method is
very similar to liquid-phase exfoliation of
pristine graphene. Only the complexity is
higher,since graphite oxide has to be produced
first, wich requires the use of several
chemicals. Also the obtained graphene oxide
has to be reduced afterwards, using thermal
treatments or chemicals again [4]. The reduced
graphene oxide is of very bad quality
compared
to
pristine
graphene,
neverthelessgraphene oxide could be the

desired product. Graphene oxide modified

with Ca and Mg ions is capable of forming
very tensile graphene oxide paper, as the ions
are cross linkers between the functional groups
of thegraphene flakes [5].

2.Growth of graphene

required substrate and the polymer support

gets peeled off or etched away. Using this
method several layers of graphene can be
stamped onto each other

What Are the Special Properties

of Graphene?

a)Chemical Vapour Deposition

Chemical vapour deposition is a well known
process in which a substrate is exposed to
gaseous compounds. These compounds
decompose on the surface in order to grow a
thin
film,
whereas
the
by-products
evaporate.There are a lot of different ways to
achieve this, e.g. by heating the sample with a
filament or with plasma. Graphene can be
grown by exposing of a Ni film to a gas
mixture of H2, CH4 and Ar at about 1000 C
[9].The methane decomposes on the surface,
so that the hydrogene evaporates. The
carbondiffuses into the Ni. After cooling down
in an Ar atomosphere, a graphene

Figure 3: (a)Scheme of preparation of

graphene by CVD and transfer via polymer
support.The carbon solves into the Ni during
the CVD and forms graphene on the surface
after cooling. With a polymer support the
graphene can be stamped onto another
substrate, after etching of the Ni layer.
Patterning of the Ni layer allows a control of
the shape of the graphene [9].(b) Roll-to-roll
process of graphene films grown on copper
foils and transferred on a targetsubstrate [1].

layer grows on the surface, a process similar to

the Ni diffusion method. Hence, the average
number of layers depends on the Ni thickness
and can be controlled in this way.
Furthermore, the shape of the graphene can
also be controlled by patterning of the Ni
layer.These graphene layers can be transfered
via polymer support, which will be attached
onto the top of the graphene. After etching the
Ni, the graphene can be stamped onto the

The
remarkable
properties
of
graphene are due to several facts:
Graphene
has
shown
some
extremely interesting properties that
have not yet observed in any other
materials.Graphene is a nearly
perfect 2D crystal. The error-free
ordering is due to the strong bonding
of the carbon atoms. At the same
time, the bonds are flexible (can be
stretched to 120%).
The lattice also enables
electrons to travel long distances.
The Fermi surface of graphene is
situated at the connection points
between
conduction
band
and
valence band. The Fermi level can be
tuned by the application of an
electric field.
The electrons in graphene behave
like massless particles, traveling at a
constant speed. This opens up the
possibility
of
studying
certain
phenomena more easily on a smaller
scale, i.e. without the use of a large
particle accelerator

Applications of graphene:
Graphene is a very attractive
material for a wide range of
applications due to its unusual
properties: mechanically very strong,
transparent,
flexible,
electrical
conductivity tunable over a large
range either by chemical doping or
electric field.

Energy storage: Graphene is capable

of absorbing a large amount of
hydrogen due to the large surface
area, and it is possible to make
energy storage devices based on
graphene. Graphene powder can also
be used in electric batteries,
replacing graphite. The large surfaceto-volume ratio and high conductivity
can lead to improvements in the
efficiency of batteries.

(A) Electronic applications

Super-Small
Transistors
:
1nanometer graphene transistor is
possible (one atom thick and 10
atoms across. The absolute physical
limit of Moores Law). Graphene has
the potential of replacing silicon as a
semiconductor and becomes the
base material for integrated circuits,
ultra
capacitors,
and
future
electronic devices. High frequency
electronic devices:
The charge carrier mobilities
graphene are very high.

(C) Sensing applications

- Gas sensors: Graphene can be an
excellent material for solid-state gas
detection. Its 2D structure, ability to
store high amounts of nhydrogen,
and change in local electrical
resistance makes molecule detection
much easier.

of

Graphene
based
quantum
computation: Low spin-orbit coupling
in graphene may make it a ideal qbit.

Electrical resistance calibration: The

quantum Hall effect in graphene
could also possibly contribute to an
even more accurate resistance
standard in metrology.

(B) Material applications

New composite materials: Composite
materials based on graphene will
have great strength and low weight,
which can be used for gasoline tanks,
plastic
containers,
sports
equipment, aircraft and automobile
parts, wind turbines, and medical
implants.
Screens and coatings: Graphene is a
transparent conductor, it can be
used as transparent conducting
electrodes for touch screens, light
panels, solar cells, and organic light
emitting devices.

(D) Fundamental physics applications

Investigate physical phenomena in
two-dimensonal space.
Provide experimental support for
theoretical models of 2D systems.
Investigate properties of high energy
particles on desktop.

What Are the Challenges

Graphene Applications?

for

High-quality, large area g p ra hene

sheets
suitable
for
industrial
applications still remain to be
demonstrated.
Accurate control of individual
features in graphene devices is still
difficult.
Such
control
will
be
necessary to provide sufficient
reproducibility in their performance
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
This present paper has introduced a
semimetal
graphene
and
has
demonstrated the reason for it's
significance, preparation methods
along with their constraints and
attributes of graphene as output,
properties
of
graphene
,
it's
applications in various fields of
technology and is finally concluded
with
the challenges for it to be
applied.
NOMENCLATURE:

V : Voltage

2D : two dimension
3D : three dimension
C : Carbon
Cu : copper
CVD : Chemical vapour
decomposition
e- : electron
Hydrophilic : Water loving
Ni : nickel
nm : nano meters
PET : Polyethylene teraphalane
S.S : Structural Steel
Si : Silicon

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