Wang Xuedong, Cui Guang, He Yan, Ci Haina
College of Electromechanical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266061, China.
Center for Nanochemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Small. 2025 Aug;21(33):e2502798. doi: 10.1002/smll.202502798. Epub 2025 Jun 19.
The controlled preparation of high-quality graphene is essential for its practical application. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) emerging as a prominent means to synthesize the material owing to its superior controllability and compatibility. To address the complex transfer issues associated with graphene growth on metal substrates via CVD, growing graphene directly on insulating substrates is a promising alternative. However, this method has several limitations, such as small domain size, high defect density, and slow growth rates. Despite numerous strategies for enhancing graphene growth on insulators, the intrinsic mechanisms that affect energy changes during CVD processes remain underexplored. The review provides an in-depth analysis of these strategies, focusing on their effects on the three critical stages of CVD growth: precursor decomposition, nucleation, and edge growth. The energy dynamics at each stage are examined, highlighting the role of metal additives and alternative precursors in reducing the pyrolysis energy barriers and improving growth efficiency. In Addition, this review discusses the strategies for enhancing graphene nucleation and edge growth to achieve high-quality monolayer graphene. Finally, the challenges and future prospects of the direct growth of high-quality graphene on insulating substrates are presented, offering insights into the path forward for industrial-scale graphene production.
高质量石墨烯的可控制备对其实际应用至关重要。化学气相沉积（CVD）由于其卓越的可控性和兼容性，正成为合成该材料的一种重要方法。为了解决通过CVD在金属衬底上生长石墨烯所带来的复杂转移问题，直接在绝缘衬底上生长石墨烯是一种很有前景的替代方法。然而，这种方法存在一些局限性，比如畴尺寸小、缺陷密度高以及生长速率慢。尽管有许多用于增强石墨烯在绝缘体上生长的策略，但在CVD过程中影响能量变化的内在机制仍未得到充分探索。本综述对这些策略进行了深入分析，重点关注它们对CVD生长三个关键阶段的影响：前驱体分解、成核和边缘生长。研究了每个阶段的能量动态，突出了金属添加剂和替代前驱体在降低热解能垒和提高生长效率方面的作用。此外，本综述还讨论了增强石墨烯成核和边缘生长以实现高质量单层石墨烯的策略。最后，介绍了在绝缘衬底上直接生长高质量石墨烯面临的挑战和未来前景，为工业规模石墨烯生产的前进道路提供了见解。
