Self-Assembly of Graphene Nanoblisters Sealed to a Bare Metal Surface

Rosanna Larciprete, Stefano Colonna, Fabio Ronci, Roberto Flammini, Paolo Lacovig, Nicoleta Apostol, Antonio Politano, Peter Feulner, Dietrich Menzel, Silvano Lizzit

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

The possibility to intercalate noble gas atoms below epitaxial graphene monolayers coupled with the instability at high temperature of graphene on the surface of certain metals has been exploited to produce Ar-filled graphene nanosized blisters evenly distributed on the bare Ni(111) surface. We have followed in real time the self-assembling of the nanoblisters during the thermal annealing of the Gr/Ni(111) interface loaded with Ar and characterized their morphology and structure at the atomic scale. The nanoblisters contain Ar aggregates compressed at high pressure arranged below the graphene monolayer skin that is decoupled from the Ni substrate and sealed only at the periphery through stable C-Ni bonds. Their in-plane truncated triangular shapes are driven by the crystallographic directions of the Ni surface. The nonuniform strain revealed along the blister profile is explained by the inhomogeneous expansion of the flexible graphene lattice that adjusts to envelop the Ar atom stacks.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1808-1817
Number of pages10
JournalNano Letters
Volume16
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 9 Mar 2016

Keywords

  • Ar intercalation
  • Graphene
  • STM
  • XPS
  • nanoblister
  • nickel

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Self-Assembly of Graphene Nanoblisters Sealed to a Bare Metal Surface'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this