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Chemical Vapor Deposition-Graphene Growth

Posted by Chia-yu Chen on

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is widely used in thin films fabrication on a heated substrate through chemical reactions. The deposition steps for CVD can be summarized into the following steps: Gas species transport to the substrate surface Gas species absorption into the surface Reaction occur and deposits products By-product and unreacted species desorbed (Sun et al. 2021) Chemical vapor deposition can better control deposition rate compared to physical vapor deposition, which can provide high quality and uniform film. Using CVD to growing 2D materials such as graphene has been a popular method since it can produce high quality graphene. MSE...

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Is Graphene Hydrophilic or Hydrophobic?

Posted by MSE Supplies Admin on

Graphene is a form of carbon that is made up of carbon atoms which form a single layer of aromatic rings (see Figure 1).[i]  Other types of carbon include graphite, coal, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, and diamond.   It has been a widely held belief that graphene is hydrophobic because graphite is hydrophobic. This belief was challenged when researchers at the National Physics Laboratory in UK found that the hydrophobic nature of the material is highly thickness dependent, with monolayer graphene being hydrophilic.[ii]  Materials scientist in the Netherlands furthered this study by measuring the contact angle of water on the graphene...

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2D Materials Can Now be Controlled with Redox Reactions

Posted by MSE Supplies Admin on

Researchers at the Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH) Department of Chemistry have discovered that redox reactions can be used to control the properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials.  Redox reactions between water and oxygen molecules in the air drive an electrochemical reaction within 2D materials that dopes them with charges from the surrounding environment.  For this experiment, graphene and tungsten disulfide were analyzed, using Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence imaging respectively, to demonstrate this phenomenon on the nanoscale.  Key material properties such as the magnetic, optical, and electrical nature of the materials were all controllable via redox manipulation.  Now that...

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5 Reasons Nanomaterials are the Future of Energy Storage

Posted by MSE Supplies Admin on

An international conglomerate of scientists and researchers from Drexel, Stanford, Graphene Labs, the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (CFAED) and others have collaborated to develop a report that details how the future of energy storage technology lies in nanomaterials.  The chief benefits of nanomaterials can be summarized into five major categories: Lifetime – nanoparticles allow devices to achieve longer lifetimes due to their minimized contact area, which prevents strain induced degradation during battery cycling. Flexibility – nanowire (1D) and nanoflake (2D) materials are both compatible with flexible devices while simultaneously achieving high electronic and ionic conductivity. Manufacturing – the unique...

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What Governs Crystal Growth? Scientists Have Revealed a Fundamental Phenomenon

Posted by MSE Supplies Admin on

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have used computer-based simulations to discover the general mechanism that governs crystal growth in materials – fluctuations in the solvent shield.  The solvent shield is a molecular shell comprised of solvent molecules that coalesce around a crystalline material when said material is immersed within a solvent.  Fluctuations in this shield allow molecules to break free and incorporate themselves into the crystal's surface in order to grow the overall structure, molecule by molecule.  The temperature, the solvent type, and the number of solvent molecules are all controllable variables that determine these shell fluctuations. ...

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