"Chemical self-assembly of graphene sheets" by Hailiang Wang, Xinran Wang et al.

Article Title

Chemical self-assembly of graphene sheets

Authors

Hailiang Wang, Department of Chemistry and Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Xinran Wang, Department of Chemistry and Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Xiaolin Li, Department of Chemistry and Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Hongjie Dai, Department of Chemistry and Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

Keywords

Chemically derived graphene sheets, self-assembly, graphene devices, electrical annealing

Abstract

Chemically derived and noncovalently functionalized graphene sheets (GS) were found to self-assemble onto patterned gold structures via electrostatic interactions between the functional groups and the gold surfaces. This afforded regular arrays of single graphene sheets on large substrates, which were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Auger microscopy imaging, and Raman spectroscopy. This represents the ﬁ rst time that self-assembly has been used to produce on-substrate and fully-suspended graphene electrical devices. Molecular coatings on the GS were removed by high current “electrical annealing”, which restored the high electrical conductance and Dirac point of the GS. Molecular sensors for highly sensitive gas detection using the self-assembled GS devices are demonstrated.