Tese de Doutorado #276: Thiago Cunha

The initial stages of graphene chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at very low pressures (P < 10-5 Torr) were investigated. The growth of large graphene domains (~up to 100μm) at very high rates (up to 3μm2.s-1) has been achieved in a cold-wall reactor using a liquid carbon precursor. For high temperature (T) growth (>900° C), graphene grain shape and symmetry were found to depend on the underlying symmetry of the Cu crystal, whereas for lower T (<900° C), mostly rounded grains are observed. The T dependence of graphene nucleation density was determined, displaying two thermally activated regimes, with activation energy values of 6±1 eV for 900