Synthesis of graphene from naphthalene molecules on the surface of a Langmuir monolayer

Abstract

This paper considers some approaches to the technology of the synthesis of a graphene monolayer at a phase interface. A surfactant monolayer on an aqueous subphase is proposed as the substrate for graphene synthesis. A monolayer is formed by the Langmuir–Blodgett method. Simple polyaromatic molecules, in particular, naphthalene, are considered as the basic substance for the synthesis of graphene. Arachidic acid is used as the basic surfactant molecule. To confirm the possibility of synthesizing graphene by the mentioned method, both experimental and theoretical studies are performed. In the course of experiemnts, it is shown that naphthalene molecules are pressed into the space above arachidic acid molecules upon the compression of monolayer of arachidic acid–naphthalene mixtures (such an assumption is made due to the characteristic value of the surface areas attributed to different phases of the monolayer and also to its characteristic parameters). The formation of a layer of naphthalene molecules on the surface of a monolayer is modeled by the molecular dynamics method (Amber potential). Different variants of the initial distribution of molecules are considered.