Supersonic spray deposits defect-free graphene

The study – conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Korea University - is available online in Advanced Functional Materials.

Graphene is strong, transparent, and an excellent conductor of electricity with potential in a wide range of applications, such as reinforcing and lending electrical properties to plastics; creating denser and faster integrated circuits; and building better touch screens.

Although the potential uses for graphene seem limitless, there has been no easy way to scale up from microscopic to large-scale applications without introducing defects, said Alexander Yarin, UIC professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and co-principal investigator on the study.

‘Normally, graphene is produced in small flakes, and even these small flakes have defects,’ Yarin said in a statement. ‘When you try to deposit them onto a large-scale area, defects increase, and graphene’s useful properties are lost.’

Yarin first turned to solving how to deposit graphene flakes to form a consistent layer without any clumps or spaces. He went to Sam S. Yoon, professor of mechanical engineering at Korea University and co-principal investigator on the study.