CVD growth of graphene/h-BN layers, structural characterization and study of layers: water interaction

Abstract

Recently, graphene's interaction with water, ionic solutions and gases came into sharp focus. It was been argued that water could flow anomalously fast over graphitic surfaces, and that flow of aqueous ions and gases through defects in graphene and graphene oxide membranes have very high selectivity. This led to graphene application research in water desalinization, single-molecule DNA sequening, gas separation, etc. Related aspect of hydrophobic property of graphene, and "wetting transparency" of graphene, are sharply debated in the current literature. We aim to systematically investigate graphene-water interaction using contact-angle measurements, atomic force microscopy (AFM), Raman, optical and FTIR measurements. We will compare graphene's properties to those of similarly structured 2D materials graphene-oxide, and hexagonal boron-nitride (BN). The modulation of the wetting and wetting transparency will be investigated in the case of graphene/BN heterostructures. At NUS Graphene Research Centre, we will join the Nano/Bio Group who has extensive expertise in those measurements and pioneered investigation of ion and DNA transport though nanopores in graphene membranes. The combined knowledge will be applied in the investigation of the single-molecule biosensing and water filtering. The first step of the project will be the development and implementation of the fabrication methods for large area BN films, as well as graphene-BN films with pristine interface between the two layers. Immediate application of this work will be in the design of nanopore-sensors for single-molecule characterization and DNA sequencing. (AU)