Synthesis of graphene by chemical vapor deposition: Effect of growth conditions

Graphene has attracted a great deal of attention due to its extraordinary physical and chemical properties. But the control of growth of high-quality, large-area and inexpensive graphene is still the bottleneck for practical applications. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has become the most common method for graphene growth due to its high production and large area of product. However, it generally suffers from an uncontrollable carbon precipitation effect that leads to inhomogeneous growth and strongly dependent on to the growth conditions. Until now, scientists have struggled to synthesize higher quality, larger area graphene through changing the experimental conditions. In this review, the progress made in the last few years concerning the exploration of preparation graphene by CVD is summarized in three aspects (catalysts, precursors and experimental parameters) that influence graphene growth.