Kinetic study of graphene growth: Temperature perspective on growth rate and film thickness by chemical vapor deposition

We studied graphene growth kinetics from a temperature perspective, particularly the influence on growth rate, nucleation density and film thickness, in the temperature range of 900–1050 °C. The activation energy for graphene growth on Cu is ∼2.74 eV. Additionally, bilayer graphene is obtained at 950 °C. Statistics results of the rotation angle suggest that over 75% of the bilayers are twisted graphene while the rest are Bernal (AB)-stacked. Our results provide insight into the optimization of CVD graphene growth on Cu and are beneficial for the development of novel graphene-based electronic devices with tunable characteristics.