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Photoresist puts focus on laser-induced graphene

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Graphene has been patterned in high-resolution and at the micron-scale with a laser and photoresist, an advance that could lead to applications in consumer electronics.

This is the claim of a Rice University laboratory that has demonstrated the conversion of positive photoresist (PR), frequently used in the manufacture of consumer electronics, into laser-induced graphene (LIG).

First introduced in 2014 by Rice chemist James Tour, laser-induced graphene (LIG) involves burning away everything that is not carbon from polymers or other materials, leaving the carbon atoms to reconfigure into films of hexagonal graphene.

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The process uses a commercial laser that writes graphene patterns into surfaces that have so far included wood, paper and food.

According to Rice, the new iteration writes fine patterns of graphene into photoresist polymers. Baking the film increases its carbon content, and lasing solidifies the robust graphene pattern, after which unlased photoresist is washed away. Details of the PR-LIG process appear in ACS Nano.

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