Procedure of removing polymer residues and its influences on electronic and structural characteristics of graphene

Abstract

Procedure of removing polymer residues by post-annealing and the effect on electronic properties of transferred monolayer graphene grown by chemical vapor deposition method are investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. It is found that breaking the polymerization backbone bond induces effective removal of poly(methyl methacrylate) on the graphene surface by depolymerization, and decomposition of the carboxyl functional group involves reducing the level of p-doping of the graphene, while the annealing process leads to an increase in defects, and consequently, to oxidation that transforms the graphene into p-doped material. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4794900]