Graphene, an incredible material: the role of chemistry in realizing the promise of technological innovation

Giuseppe Valerio BIANCO, CNR NANOTEC Bari

The vision for the future of graphene, seen as the one-atom-thick sheet of carbon organized in a chicken wire structure, has been mainly related to two fundamental properties: optical transparency and electrical conductivity. These properties, their tunability by electrical, electrolytic and chemical doping, together with flexibility have opened new horizons for the technological innovations in electronic, photonic, and energy applications.

Nowadays, these specific applications can rely on the production of optimized graphene by three distinct and effective techniques:(a) mechanical/chemical exfoliation of carbon monolayers from graphite, (b) CVD grow of graphene on a metallic substrate, or (c) epitaxial growth of graphene layers at the surface of silicon carbide. However, graphene still finds few concrete applications often due to its non-competitiveness compared to more conventional materials (expecially on the large area). An example of this is related to the application of graphene as an alternative to transparent conductive layers (TCL) like ITO, FTO, AZO.

This talk will focus on chemical routes for making graphene a competitive material in terms of transport (sheet resistance <18Ohm/square) and optical properties for specific optoelectronic and photonic applications.

 
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