Applied Optics and Microsystems Laboratory, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2019 Apr 8;9(1):5773. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-42108-x.
Fabrication of microsystems is traditionally achieved with photolithography. However, this fabrication technique can be expensive and non-ideal for integration with microfluidic systems. As such, graphene fabrication is explored as an alternative. This graphene fabrication can be achieved with graphite oxide undergoing optical exposure, using optical disc drives, to impose specified patterns and convert to graphene. This work characterises such a graphene fabrication, and provides fabrication, electrical, microfluidic, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterisations. In the fabrication characterisation, a comparison is performed between traditional photolithography fabrication and the new graphene fabrication. (Graphene fabrication details are also provided.) Here, the minimum achievable feature size is identified and graphene fabrication is found to compare favourably with traditional photolithography fabrication. In the electrical characterisation, the resistivity of graphene is measured as a function of fabrication dose in the optical disc drive and saturation effects are noted. In the microfluidic characterisation, the wetting properties of graphene are shown through an investigation of the contact angle of a microdroplet positioned on a surface that is treated with varying fabrication dose. In the SEM characterisation, the observed effects in the previous characterisations are attributed to chemical or physical effects through measurement of SEM energy dispersive X-ray spectra and SEM images, respectively. Overall, graphene fabrication is revealed to be a viable option for development of microsystems and microfluidics.
微系统的制造传统上采用光刻技术。然而，这种制造技术可能很昂贵，并且不适合与微流控系统集成。因此，探索了石墨烯制造作为替代方法。这种石墨烯制造可以通过对氧化石墨进行光学曝光来实现，使用光盘驱动器来施加指定的图案并将其转化为石墨烯。这项工作对这种石墨烯制造进行了表征，并提供了制造、电气、微流控和扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 表征。在制造特性中，对传统光刻制造和新的石墨烯制造进行了比较。（还提供了石墨烯制造的详细信息。）在这里，确定了可实现的最小特征尺寸，并且发现石墨烯制造与传统光刻制造相比具有优势。在电气特性中，测量了石墨烯的电阻率作为光盘驱动器中制造剂量的函数，并注意到饱和效应。在微流控特性中，通过研究放置在经过不同制造剂量处理的表面上的微滴的接触角，显示了石墨烯的润湿性。在 SEM 特性中，通过测量 SEM 能谱和 SEM 图像，分别将之前特性中观察到的效应归因于化学或物理效应。总体而言，石墨烯制造被证明是开发微系统和微流控的可行选择。
