Copper-Assisted Direct Growth of Vertical Graphene Nanosheets on Glass Substrates by Low-Temperature Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition Process

Vertical graphene (VG) nanosheets are directly grown below 500 °C on glass substrates by a one-step copper-assisted plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) process. A piece of copper foil is located around a glass substrate as a catalyst in the process. The effect of the copper catalyst on the vertical graphene is evaluated in terms of film morphology, growth rate, carbon density in the plasma and film resistance. The growth rate of the vertical graphene is enhanced by a factor of 5.6 with the copper catalyst with denser vertical graphene. The analysis of optical emission spectra suggests that the carbon radical density is increased with the copper catalyst. Highly conductive VG films having 800 Ω/□ are grown on glass substrates with Cu catalyst at a relatively low temperature.