A team from the California Institute of Technology has invented a new method to produce "wonder material" graphene at the room temperature that can help pave the way for better graphene-based solar cells and light-emitting diodes, large-panel displays and flexible electronics.
The ability to produce graphene without the need for active heating not only reduces manufacturing costs but also results in a better product because fewer defects.
"With this new technique, we can grow large sheets of electronic-grade graphene in much less time and at much lower temperatures," explained scientist David Boyd who developed the method.
Graphene could revolutionise a variety of engineering and scientific fields due to its unique properties.
Existing techniques require temperatures that are much too hot - 1,000 degrees Celsius - for incorporating graphene fabrication with current electronic manufacturing.
Additionally, high-temperature growth of graphene tends to induce large, uncontrollably deformation in the material which severely compromises its intrinsic properties.
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The new paper, published in the journal Nature Communications, detailed the new manufacturing process and the novel properties of the graphene it produces.
It can consistently produce high-mobility and nearly strain-free graphene in a single step in just a few minutes without high temperature.
"We have created sample sizes of a few square centimetres, and since we think that our method is scalable, we believe that we can grow sheets that are up to several square inches or larger, paving the way to realistic large-scale applications," the authors wrote.