Seeded Growth of Ultrathin Carbon Films Directly onto Silicon Substrates.

The production of graphene films is of importance for the large-scale application of graphene-based materials; however, there is still a lack of an efficient and effective approach to synthesize graphene films directly on dielectric substrates. Here, we report the controlled growth of ultrathin carbon films, which have a similar structure to graphene, directly on silicon substrates in a process of seeded chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Crystalline silicon with a thermally grown 300 nm oxide layer was first treated with 3-trimethoxysilyl-1-propanamine (APS), which was used as an anchor point for the covalent deposition of small graphene flakes, obtained from graphite using the Hummers' method.