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Oxygen-suppressed selective growth of monolayer hexagonal boron nitride on copper twin crystals

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Abstract

Controlled growth of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) with desired properties is essential for its wide range of applications. Here, we systematically carried out the chemical vapor deposition of monolayer h-BN on Cu twin crystals. It was found that h-BN nucleated and grew preferentially and simultaneously on the narrow twin crystal strips present in the Cu substrates. The density functional theory calculations revealed that the introduction of oxygen could efficiently tune the selectivity. This is because of the reduction in the dehydrogenation barrier of the precursor molecules by the introduction of oxygen. Our findings throw light on the direct growth of functional h-BN nanoribbons on nano-twinned crystal strips and switching of the growth behavior of h-BN films by oxygen.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Nos. 2013CB932604 and 2012CB933403), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51535005, 51472117, 11472131, and 11622218), the Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation (Nos. BK20130781 and BK20160037), the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures (Nos. MCMS-0416K01, MCMS-0416G01, and 0414K01), the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) Fundamental Research Funds (Nos. NP2015203 and NS2014012), the Funding of Jiangsu Innovation Program for Graduate Education (No. CXZZ13_0150) and a Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Key Laboratory for Intelligent Nano Materials and Devices of the Ministry of Education and Institute of Nanoscience, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Xuemei Li, Yao Li, Qin Wang, Jun Yin, Jidong Li, Jin Yu & Wanlin Guo

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  1. Xuemei Li
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  2. Yao Li
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Correspondence to Wanlin Guo.

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Li, X., Li, Y., Wang, Q. et al. Oxygen-suppressed selective growth of monolayer hexagonal boron nitride on copper twin crystals. Nano Res. 10, 826–833 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1338-9

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