Bottom-Up Synthesis of Graphene Monolayers with Tunable Crystallinity and Porosity

We present a method for a bottom-up synthesis of atomically thin graphene sheets with tunable crystallinity and porosity using aromatic self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) as molecular precursors. To this end, we employ SAMs with pyridine and pyrrole constituents on polycrystalline copper foils and convert them initially into molecular nanosheets—carbon nanomembranes (CNMs)—via low-energy electron irradiation induced cross-linking and then into graphene monolayers via pyrolysis. As the nitrogen atoms are leaving the nanosheets during pyrolysis, nanopores are generated in the formed single-layer graphene. We elucidate the structural changes upon the cross-linking and pyrolysis down to the atomic scale by complementary spectroscopy and microscopy techniques including X-ray photoelectron and Raman spectroscopy, low energy electron diffraction, atomic force, helium ion, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and electrical transport measurements. We demonstrate that the crystallinity and porosity of the formed graphene can be adjusted via the choice of molecular precursors and pyrolysis temperature, and we present a kinetic growth model quantitatively describing the conversion of molecular CNMs into graphene. The synthesized nanoporous graphene monolayers resemble a percolated network of graphene nanoribbons with a high charge carrier mobility (∼600 cm2/(V s)), making them attractive for implementations in electronic field-effect devices.