Novel process of coating Al on graphene involving organic aluminum accompanying microstructure evolution

Abstract A novel chemical reduction of organic aluminum for coating Al on the graphene surface is proposed. During the process, Al powder reacted with the (C2H5)2Br solution to produce (C2H5)3Al solution, followed by gradual decomposition of (C2H5)3Al into Al atoms. Al atoms gradually deposited on the surface of graphene, nucleated, grew up, until Al coating was formed on the surface of graphene. With the increase of reaction temperature, the decomposition rate of (C2H5)3Al increased, which was beneficial to the formation of Al atoms and Al coating. The reducing agent, NaH, promoted the reaction and formation of Al coating. When the reaction temperature was optimized to 100 °C, and the reaction time was 1.5 h, with NaH added to the solution, high quality Al-coated graphene was obtained.