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Fabrication of graphene-covered micro-tubes for process intensification

Fabrication of graphene-covered micro-tubes for process intensification
Fabrication of graphene-covered micro-tubes for process intensification

Graphene is known for its high surface-area-to-mass ratio. However, for using graphene in engineering processes such as catalytic reactors or heat exchangers, a high surface-area-to-volume ratio is essential. Currently, graphene is only prepared in sheet form, which limits its surface-area-to-volume ratio to around 200 m2 m−3. Herein, a technique based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to realize graphene on a micro-tubular substrate to not only substantially increase its surface-area-to-volume ratio to a value over 2000 m2 m−3 but also to eliminate the maldistribution of flows commonly unavoidable in flat-sheet configurations is proposed and demonstrated. This approach uses a dual-layer micro-tubular substrate fabricated by a phase-inversion technique. In the substrate, a thin copper outer layer is used to enable the CVD growth of graphene, and an inner Cu–Fe layer is adopted to provide a strong mechanical support. This approach is feasible to produce graphene with a very high surface-area-to-volume ratio for possible applications in catalytic reactors or heat exchangers, although problems such as inter-diffusion between the two metal layers and defects in graphene need to be addressed. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to prepare graphene with high surface-area-to-volume ratios by a CVD route.

chemical vapor deposition, copper, graphene, micro-tubes, phase inversion
1438-1656
Chong, Jeng Y.
2f9ead94-86f2-4e20-9e67-75f10759555b
Wang, Bo
55cee5a5-fd5f-4109-bc4d-06ee5e49e99f
Sherrell, Peter C.
e99fef42-4112-4e3c-a736-dcb1051a0d90
Pesci, Federico M.
b5416d14-1f95-48be-88f8-89d63cbf7c9c
Mattevi, Cecilia
58086c8a-9a2e-4ce7-b478-b7c8d22d5feb
Li, Kang
0f88a8e1-2691-46af-acb0-7176c79f5aa7
Chong, Jeng Y.
2f9ead94-86f2-4e20-9e67-75f10759555b
Wang, Bo
55cee5a5-fd5f-4109-bc4d-06ee5e49e99f
Sherrell, Peter C.
e99fef42-4112-4e3c-a736-dcb1051a0d90
Pesci, Federico M.
b5416d14-1f95-48be-88f8-89d63cbf7c9c
Mattevi, Cecilia
58086c8a-9a2e-4ce7-b478-b7c8d22d5feb
Li, Kang
0f88a8e1-2691-46af-acb0-7176c79f5aa7

Chong, Jeng Y., Wang, Bo, Sherrell, Peter C., Pesci, Federico M., Mattevi, Cecilia and Li, Kang (2019) Fabrication of graphene-covered micro-tubes for process intensification. Advanced Engineering Materials, 21 (11), [1900642]. (doi:10.1002/adem.201900642).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Graphene is known for its high surface-area-to-mass ratio. However, for using graphene in engineering processes such as catalytic reactors or heat exchangers, a high surface-area-to-volume ratio is essential. Currently, graphene is only prepared in sheet form, which limits its surface-area-to-volume ratio to around 200 m2 m−3. Herein, a technique based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to realize graphene on a micro-tubular substrate to not only substantially increase its surface-area-to-volume ratio to a value over 2000 m2 m−3 but also to eliminate the maldistribution of flows commonly unavoidable in flat-sheet configurations is proposed and demonstrated. This approach uses a dual-layer micro-tubular substrate fabricated by a phase-inversion technique. In the substrate, a thin copper outer layer is used to enable the CVD growth of graphene, and an inner Cu–Fe layer is adopted to provide a strong mechanical support. This approach is feasible to produce graphene with a very high surface-area-to-volume ratio for possible applications in catalytic reactors or heat exchangers, although problems such as inter-diffusion between the two metal layers and defects in graphene need to be addressed. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first attempt to prepare graphene with high surface-area-to-volume ratios by a CVD route.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 16 August 2019
Additional Information: Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the research funding provided by EPSRC in the United Kingdom (Grant no. EP/M022250/1). Publisher Copyright: © 2019 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Keywords: chemical vapor deposition, copper, graphene, micro-tubes, phase inversion

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 486379
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486379
ISSN: 1438-1656
PURE UUID: ea6a1634-6c06-4e05-ae9c-8f715cf09f7a
ORCID for Jeng Y. Chong: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0593-6313

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Date deposited: 18 Jan 2024 19:26
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 02:20

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Contributors

Author: Jeng Y. Chong ORCID iD
Author: Bo Wang
Author: Peter C. Sherrell
Author: Federico M. Pesci
Author: Cecilia Mattevi
Author: Kang Li

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