PROCESS FOR FABRICATION OF GRAPHENE USING PLASMA TECHNOLOGY

• Main Authors: SOARES GONÇALVES, Bruno Miguel, DA MOTA CAPITÃO LEMOS ALVES, Luís Paulo, DOS SANTOS DUARTE VIEIRA HENRIQUES, Júlio Paulo, STEFANOVA TATAROVA, Elena
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 19.07.2023
• Subjects: CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT; CHEMISTRY; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATIONOR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY IONIMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COMPOUNDS THEREOF; DIFFUSION TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL; ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; INHIBITING CORROSION OF METALLIC MATERIAL OR INCRUSTATION INGENERAL; INORGANIC CHEMISTRY; MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF NANOSTRUCTURES; MEASUREMENT OR ANALYSIS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; METALLURGY; NANOTECHNOLOGY; NON-METALLIC ELEMENTS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PLASMA TECHNIQUE; PRODUCTION OF ACCELERATED ELECTRICALLY-CHARGED PARTICLES OR OFNEUTRONS; PRODUCTION OR ACCELERATION OF NEUTRAL MOLECULAR OR ATOMICBEAMS; SPECIFIC USES OR APPLICATIONS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THESURFACE, BY CHEMICAL CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION; TRANSPORTING

The present invention relates to a process, reactor and system to produce self-standing two-dimensional nanostructures, using a microwave-excited plasma environment. The process is based on injecting, into a reactor, a mixture (9) of gases and precursors in stream regime. The stream is subjected to a surface wave (5) electric field, excited by the use of microwave power (7) which is introduced into a field applicator (6), generating high energy density plasmas (2,3,4), that break the precursors into its atomic and/or molecular constituents. The system comprises a plasma reactor with a surface wave launching zone, a transient zone with a progressively increasing cross-sectional area, and a nucleation zone. The plasma reactor together with an infrared radiation source (11) provides a controlled adjustment of the spatial gradients, of the temperature and the gas stream velocity. The majority of the obtained two-dimensional nanostructures samples have a thickness of a single atomic layer, in addition the process and system allow to obtain graphene production rates of the order of one gram per hour and higher.