Large single-crystal graphene is possible

Thanks to its conductivity, strength and flexibility, graphene is considered as one of the most likely substitutes for silicon and other materials. However, it has not yet resulted in industrial applications. High-quality single-crystal graphene can only be produced in quantities a couple of millimeters to mere centimeters in size. Recently, a team led by Prof. Feng Ding and Prof. Rodney Ruoff with the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Prof. Kaihui Liu at Peking University, and their collaborators reported the synthesis of a large sheet of monolayer single-crystal graphene. This result allows a leap forward in graphene production to an optimized method of fabricating an almost-perfect (> 99.9 % aligned) 5 × 50 cm2 single-crystal graphene in just 20 minutes. Moreover, the low production costs, comparable to commercially available lower-quality polycrystalline graphene films, could expand its usability. Detailed in Science Bulletin, the method is expected to stimulate further fundamental work on graphene and related materials, including large-scale folding of graphene sheets, similar to paper, creating origami-like or kirigami-like shapes that could be applied to future flexible circuits.