I. Kuljanishvili, Y. Kim, W. King
Saint Louis University,
United States
Keywords: graphene, chemical vapor deposition, 3D printing
Summary:
Irma Kuljanishvili1*, Yuusuk Kim 1, Wilson King2 1 Department of Physics, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA 2 School of Medicine, Saint Louis University, St Louis, MO, USA *Presenter (Irma.kuljanishvili@slu.edu) Single- and double-layer graphene, as well as few layered graphene films continue to attract significant attention due to their unique properties and wide variety of applications, including many in biomedical fields. Synthesis of high-quality graphene films on various metal substrates has been successfully demonstrated to date. In many applications large areas graphene has been prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on catalytic metal surfaces and subsequently transferred onto target substrates or devices, which include either flat, rigid or flexible substrates However, an increased interest in the use of graphene in medical applications often requires its direct fabrication on the substrates other than common metal surfaces such as Cu, Ni, Co, etc. Here we report on fabrication of quality two -to- three- layered graphene on 3D printed metal alloy substrates with controlled morphologies using CVD method. The number of layers, homogeneity and crystallinity of graphene grown on a large area 3D printed metal alloy disks was studied by Raman spectroscopy. The microstructure and the morphology of the graphene films on metal alloy substrates was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), while chemical make-up was studied with X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPS), etc. We demonstrate correlation between growth temperature and hydrophobic properties of as-growth graphene films, with highest surface contact angle approaching superhydrophobic characteristics. Our results demonstrate a viable and robust process of a direct growth of graphene film on non-traditional substates, such as 3D printed and arbitrarily shaped metal alloy substrates. This approach could potentially be applied to the synthesis of other 2D materials which are becoming increasingly popular and viable for biomedical industry. It also opens new opportunities for other arbitrary designs of 3D printed metal constructs being developed for a variety of medical applications including but not limited to medical implants, prosthetics etc. References: N. Schaper, D. Alameri, Y. Kim, B. Thomas, K. McCormack, M. Chan, R. Divan, D. J. Gosztola, Y. Liu, I. Kuljanishvili, Controlled Fabrication of Quality ZnO NWs/CNTs and ZnO NWs/Gr Heterostructures via Direct Two-Step CVD Method, Nanomaterials 2021, 11(7), 1836 Dong, R.; Moore, L.; Ocola, L.E.; Kuljanishvili, I. Enabling Quality Interfaces with Mask-Free Approach to Selective Growth of MoS2/Graphene Stacked Structures. Adv. Mater. Interfaces 2016, 3, 1600098