Ethanol-Precursor Mediated Growth and Thermochromic Applications of Highly Conductive Vertically-Oriented Graphene on Soda-Lime Glass

Direct growth of vertically-oriented graphene (VG) nanowalls on soda-lime glass has practical significance in extending the application of graphene to daily-life related areas, such as gas sensors and conductive electrodes, via combining their complementary properties and applications. However, low temperature deposition derived VG films (e.g. on glass) usually present relative low conductivity and optical transparency. To tackle this issue, an ethanol-precursor-based, radio-frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (rf-PECVD) route for the synthesis of VG-nanowalls is developed in this research, around the softening temperature of soda-lime glass (~600 ℃) templates. The average sheet resistance ~2.4 kΩ·sq-1 (at transmittance ~81.6%) is only one-half of that achieved by a traditional methane-precursor-based PECVD route. Based on the highly conductive and optical transparent VG/glass, as well its scalable size up to 25-inch scale, high-performance reversible thermochromic devices were successfull...