Abstract
Increased applications of nanoporous graphene in nanoelectronics and membrane separations require ordered and precise perforation of graphene, whose scalablility and time/cost effectiveness represent a significant challenge in existing nanoperforation methods, such as catalytical etching and lithography. A strain-guided perforation of graphene through oxidative etching is reported, where nanopores nucleate selectively at the bulges induced by the prepatterned nanoprotrusions underneath. Using reactive molecular dynamics and theoretical models, the perforation mechanisms are uncovered through the relationship between bulge-induced strain and enhanced etching reactivity. Parallel experiments of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of graphene on SiO2 NPs/SiO2 substrates verify the feasibility of such strain-guided perforation and evolution of pore size by exposure of varied durations to oxygen plasma. This scalable method can be feasibly applied to a broad variety of 2D materials (e.g., graphene and h-boron nitride) and nanoprotrusions (e.g., SiO2 and C60 nanoparticles), allowing rational fabrication of 2D material-based devices.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1903213 |
| Journal | Small |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 40 |
| Early online date | 16 Aug 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
X.B.L. and B.D.Z. contributed equally to this work. The work of X.B.L. and X.C. was supported by the Center for Advanced Materials for Energy and Environment. X.B.L. acknowledges support from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) graduate scholarship. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB22040502), the Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. A part of this work was conducted at Advanced Characterization Nanotechnology Platform of the University of Tokyo, supported by “Nanotechnology Platform” of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan. X.B.L., A.Y., and X.C. designed the experiments. X.B.L, Y.N., and X.C. designed the simulations and theoretical modeling. X.B.L. and B.D.Z. performed the r-MD simulations and theoretical calculations. A.Y. and T.F. conducted the experiments. Y.L.C. and H.X. conducted the FEM calculations. X.B.L., B.D.Z., Y.N., A.Y., and X.C. carried out analysis and wrote the paper. All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.Keywords
- nanofabrication
- porous graphene
- selective peforation
- strain localization