Rosin-enabled ultraclean and damage-free transfer of graphene for large-area flexible organic light-emitting diodes

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 8; no. 1; p. 14560
• Main Authors: Zhang, Zhikun, Du, Jinhong, Zhang, Dingdong, Sun, Hengda, Yin, Lichang, Ma, Laipeng, Chen, Jiangshan, Ma, Dongge, Cheng, Hui-Ming, Ren, Wencai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 24.02.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/133; 140/146; 639/301/1005/1007; 639/925/918/1052; Adsorption; Graphene; Humanities and Social Sciences; Light emitting diodes; Lighting; multidisciplinary; Polyethylene terephthalate; Polymers; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Solvents; China
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14560

The large polymer particle residue generated during the transfer process of graphene grown by chemical vapour deposition is a critical issue that limits its use in large-area thin-film devices such as organic light-emitting diodes. The available lighting areas of the graphene-based organic light-emitting diodes reported so far are usually <1 cm 2 . Here we report a transfer method using rosin as a support layer, whose weak interaction with graphene, good solubility and sufficient strength enable ultraclean and damage-free transfer. The transferred graphene has a low surface roughness with an occasional maximum residue height of about 15 nm and a uniform sheet resistance of 560 Ω per square with about 1% deviation over a large area. Such clean, damage-free graphene has produced the four-inch monolithic flexible graphene-based organic light-emitting diode with a high brightness of about 10,000 cd m −2 that can already satisfy the requirements for lighting sources and displays. Ultraclean and damage-free transfer of graphene over large areas is crucial for the future development of flexible electronics and optoelectronics. Using a rosin-assisted method, the authors transfer graphene with an ultraclean surface and uniform small sheet resistance—a 4-inch monolithic organic light-emitting diode is demonstrated.