Physics World April 11, 2020
Techniques for manufacturing graphite films take several hours and require processing temperatures of around 3000°C. Researchers in China produced high-quality graphite film tens of nanometres thick within a few seconds by heating nickel foil to 1200°C in an argon atmosphere and then rapidly immersing this foil in ethanol at 0°C. The carbon atoms produced from the decomposition of ethanol diffuse and dissolve into the nickel because of its high carbon solubility. As this carbon solubility greatly decreases at low temperature, the carbon atoms subsequently segregate and precipitate from the nickel surface during quenching, producing a thick graphite film. The researchers report that the excellent catalytic activity of nickel also aids the formation of highly crystalline graphite. The graphite they produced was highly crystalline over large areas, well layered and contained no visible defects and has high electron conductivity…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Second timescale synthesis of graphite film on Ni foil by ethanol quenching. Adapted with permission from ACS Nano 14 3 3121-3128. Copyright 2020 American Chemical Society