Growth of millimeter-size single crystal graphene on Cu foils by circumfluence chemical vapor deposition

A simply and reproducible way is proposed to significantly suppress the nucleation density of graphene on the copper foil during the chemical vapor deposition process. By inserting a copper foil into a tube with one close end, the nucleation density on the copper foils can be reduced by more than five orders of magnitude and an ultra-low nucleation density of ~10 nucleus/cm(2) has been achieved. The structural analyses demonstrate that single crystal monolayer graphene with a lateral size of 1.9 mm can be grown on the copper foils under the optimized growth condition. The electrical transport studies show that the mobility of such single crystal graphene is around 2400 cm(2)/Vs.