Researchers Synthesize 3D Nanoporous Graphene with Preserved 2D Dirac Electronic Characters

Three-dimentional (3D) nanoporous graphene with preserved 2D Dirac electronic characters was successfully synthesized by Dr. Yoshikazu Ito and Prof. Mingwei CHEN at Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University.

The nanoporous graphene is constructed by a single layer graphene sheet that is continuously inter-connected to form a complex 3D network structure. This free-standing nanoporous graphene with an excellent crystallinity possesses high mobility, holding great promise for the applications in electronic devices.

The nanoporous graphene were grown by a nanoporous metal based chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method as shown in Figure 1(a). The overall morphology of the nanoporous graphene in Figure 1(b) shows a ~20 µm thick free-standing bulk sheet. Although the 3D nanoporous graphene has a complex structure, it is demonstrated to be 500 cm²/Vs in electron mobility and a mass-less Dirac cone system. As the conventional transistor requires electron mobility of 200 cm²/Vs, it is greatly expected that this nanoporous graphene will bring a new device which can be replaced with Si devices.

This work is collaborated with the research teams of Prof. Katsumi Tanigaki and Prof. Takashi Takahashi at AIMR, Tohoku University. This research results will be published in issue 19 of 'Angewandte Chemie International Edition' as a Hot Paper on 2 May.