Paraffin assisted graphene transfer

Abstract

In this master’s thesis, we propose Paraffin support layer as an alternative to the well established and widely used PMMA for CVD grown Graphene transfer process. The motivation behind the project being to eliminate the two key drawbacks of PMMA transferred graphene. First, the leftover PMMA residue after layer removal, which contaminates and reduces the quality of the final film. Second, the cracks and wrinkles observed in the graphene post-transfer. In the works of Leong et. al. and Villa et. al., they demonstrate that paraffin helps mitigate these issues as it is easier to remove, thanks to its alkane properties and low melting point. Furthermore, paraffin also has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion which can be utilized to stretch the graphene during transfer to help get rid of wrinkles and its flexible nature helps keep the graphene intact. In our work, we tried recreating those results by simulating similar transfer parameters to the best of our ability as well as trying some different iterations of our own. Our results show some promise in terms of obtaining cleaner and wrinkle free Graphene, but keeping large areas of the films intact during transfer remains a challenge. Thus, further optimizations at several stages of the transfer process are required.