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Dynamic observation of in-plane h-BN/graphene heterostructures growth on Ni(111)

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Abstract

The lateral incorporation of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) onto a substrate surface creates in-plane h-BN/graphene heterostructures, which have promising applications in novel two-dimensional electronic and photoelectronic devices. The quality of h-BN/graphene domain boundaries depends on their orientation, which is crucial for device performances. Here, the heteroepitaxial growth of graphene along the edges of h-BN domains on Ni(111) surfaces as well as the growth dynamics of h-BN using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) are in situ investigated by surface imaging measurements. The nucleating seed effect of h-BN has been revealed, which contributes to the single orientation of heterostructures with epitaxial stitching. Further, the growth of h-BN prior to that of graphene is essential to obtain high-quality in-plane h-BN/graphene heterostructures on Ni(111). The “compact to fractal” shape transition of h-BN domains appears with the increasing surface concentration of the growth blocks, suggesting that the dynamic growth mechanism follows diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) but not reaction-limited aggregation (RLA). Our results provide insights into the synthesis of well-defined h-BN/graphene heterostructures and deep understanding of the growth dynamics of h-BN on metal surfaces.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21872169), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20170426). The authors are grateful for the support for Synchrotron Light Research Institute (SLRI) in Thailand, and the help from Ms. Xiao Chen and Mr. Hu Wang with current magnetron sputtering experiments in Nano-X from Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, CAS.

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  1. Wei Wei and Jiaqi Pan contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vacuum Interconnected Nanotech Workstation, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Wei Wei, Jiaqi Pan & Yi Cui

  2. Synchrotron Light Research Institute, Nakhon Ratchasima, 30000, Thailand

    Chanan Euaruksakul

  3. State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, iChEM, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China

    Yang Yang, Qiang Fu & Xinhe Bao

  4. Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Xinhe Bao

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  1. Wei Wei
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Correspondence to Yi Cui or Xinhe Bao.

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Wei, W., Pan, J., Euaruksakul, C. et al. Dynamic observation of in-plane h-BN/graphene heterostructures growth on Ni(111). Nano Res. 13, 1789–1794 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2638-7

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