A team of researchers from Exeter’s Centre for Graphene Science have developed a method for creating entire device arrays directly on the copper substrates used for the commercial manufacture of graphene. Complete and fully-functional devices can then be transferred to a substrate of choice, such as silicon, plastics or even textiles.
This new approach is simpler than conventional ways of producing graphene-based devices, and could lead the way to using simple and cheap-to-produce graphene devices for various applications, from gas and bio-medical sensors to touch-screen displays.
To demonstrate the new process, the team prepared a flexible and transparent graphene oxide-based humidity sensor that would be cheap to produce using common wafer-scale or roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques, yet can reportedly outperform currently available commercial sensors.
The work was carried out as part of the EU-funded FP7 project CareRAMM to develop new ways of building graphene devices.