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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    High-mobility graphene on liquid p-block elements by ultra-low-loss CVD growth
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2013) Wang, Jiao; Zeng, Mengqi; Tan, Lifang; Dai, Boya; Deng, Yuan; Rümmeli, Mark; Xu, Haitao; Li, Zishen; Wang, Sheng; Peng, Lianmao; Eckert, Jürgen; Fu, Lei
    The high-quality and low-cost of the graphene preparation method decide whether graphene is put into the applications finally. Enormous efforts have been devoted to understand and optimize the CVD process of graphene over various d-block transition metals (e.g. Cu, Ni and Pt). Here we report the growth of uniform high-quality single-layer, single-crystalline graphene flakes and their continuous films over p-block elements (e.g. Ga) liquid films using ambient-pressure chemical vapor deposition. The graphene shows high crystalline quality with electron mobility reaching levels as high as 7400 cm2 V−1s−1 under ambient conditions. Our employed growth strategy is ultra-low-loss. Only trace amounts of Ga are consumed in the production and transfer of the graphene and expensive film deposition or vacuum systems are not needed. We believe that our research will open up new territory in the field of graphene growth and thus promote its practical application.
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    Dispersibility of vapor phase oxygen and nitrogen functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes in various organic solvents
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Khazaee, Maryam; Xia, Wei; Lackner, Gerhard; Mendes, Rafael G.; Rümmeli, Mark; Muhler, Martin; Lupascu, Doru C.
    The synthesis and characterization of gas phase oxygen- and nitrogen-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (OMWCNTs and NMWCNTs) and the dispersibility of these tubes in organic solvents were investigated. Recently, carbon nanotubes have shown supreme capacity to effectively enhance the efficiency of organic solar cells (OSCs). A critical challenge is to individualize tubes from their bundles in order to provide homogenous nano-domains in the active layer of OSCs. OMWCNTs and NMWCNTs were synthesized via HNO3 vapor and NH3 treatments, respectively. Surface functional groups and the structure of the tubes were analyzed by temperature-programmed desorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy which confirmed the formation of functional groups on the tube surface and the enhancement of surface defects. Elemental analysis demonstrated that the oxygen and nitrogen content increased with increasing treatment time of the multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) in HNO3 vapor. According to ultra-violet visible spectroscopy, modification of the MWCNT increased the extinction coefficients of the tubes owing to enhanced compatibility of the functionalized tubes with organic matrices.
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    Microscopic insight into the bilateral formation of carbon spirals from a symmetric iron core
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2013) Shiozawa, Hidetsugu; Bachmatiuk, Alicja; Stangl, Andreas; Cox, David C.; Silva, S. Ravi P.; Rümmeli, Mark; Pichler, Thomas
    Mirrored carbon-spirals have been produced from pressured ferrocene via the bilateral extrusion of the spiral pairs from an iron core. A parametric plot of the surface geometry displays the fractal growth of the conical helix made with the logarithmic spiral. Electron microscopy studies show the core is a crystalline cementite which grows and transforms its shape from spherical to biconical as it extrudes two spiralling carbon arms. In a cross section along the arms we observe graphitic flakes arranged in a herringbone structure, normal to which defects propagate. Local-wave-pattern analysis reveals nanoscale defect patterns of two-fold symmetry around the core. The data suggest that the bilateral growth originates from a globular cementite crystal with molten surfaces and the nano-defects shape emerging hexagonal carbon into a fractal structure. Understanding and knowledge obtained provide a basis for the controlled production of advanced carbon materials with designed geometries.
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    High power Q-switched thulium doped fibre laser using carbon nanotube polymer composite saturable absorber
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Chernysheva, Maria; Mou, Chengbo; Arif, Raz; AlAraimi, Mohammed; Rümmeli, Mark; Turitsyn, Sergei; Rozhin, Aleksey
    We have proposed and demonstrated a Q-switched Thulium doped fibre laser (TDFL) with a ‘Yin-Yang’ all-fibre cavity scheme based on a combination of nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) and nonlinear amplified loop mirror (NALM). Unidirectional lasing operation has been achieved without any intracavity isolator. By using a carbon nanotube polymer composite based saturable absorber (SA), we demonstrated the laser output power of ~197 mW and pulse energy of 1.7 μJ. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power from a nanotube polymer composite SA based Q-switched Thulium doped fibre laser.
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    CVD growth of large area smooth-edged graphene nanomesh by nanosphere lithography
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2013) Wang, Min; Fu, Lei; Gan, Lin; Zhang, Chaohua; Rümmeli, Mark; Bachmatiuk, Alicja; Fang, Ying; Liu, Zhongfan
    Current etching routes to process large graphene sheets into nanoscale graphene so as to open up a bandgap tend to produce structures with rough and disordered edges. This leads to detrimental electron scattering and reduces carrier mobility. In this work, we present a novel yet simple direct-growth strategy to yield graphene nanomesh (GNM) on a patterned Cu foil via nanosphere lithography. Raman spectroscopy and TEM characterizations show that the as-grown GNM has significantly smoother edges than post-growth etched GNM. More importantly, the transistors based on as-grown GNM with neck widths of 65-75 nm have a near 3-fold higher mobility than those derived from etched GNM with the similar neck widths.