New doctor at Łukasiewicz – PORT

The aim of the Industrial Doctorate was to develop systems for synthesizing graphene on copper surfaces and to optimize the synthesis conditions, targeting the effective coating of copper wires and tracks with graphene, along with developing methods to assess the quality of the obtained coatings.

As a result of the conducted work, two systems for graphene synthesis via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) were developed. The first system allows for continuous coating of copper wires of various diameters, while the second, a batch system, enables both low-temperature synthesis for coating copper tracks and high-temperature synthesis aimed at obtaining high-quality graphene.

The optimization of the synthesis processes allowed for obtaining high-quality graphene on copper substrates in both systems. During these processes, comprehensive guidelines for working with copper substrates were developed, enabling the production of single-layer graphene on commercially available M1E copper. Methods for transferring from foil, wires, and copper tracks were created, allowing for the full characterization of the obtained graphene and its use on a wide range of target substrates.

The research results presented in the thesis also include comparative studies on the aging and temperature resistance of the produced graphene coatings. The studies were conducted on copper wires of commercial purity grade M1E, where wires coated with PECVD graphene, graphene oxide, and commercial lacquer were subjected to salt spray corrosion tests. The degree of copper surface protection and changes in resistance at elevated temperatures were evaluated. The studies demonstrated both the structural stability of graphene after anti-corrosion tests and comparable or better resistance results at elevated temperatures compared to commercial coatings.

The work was carried out at Łukasiewicz – PORT in collaboration with the Department of Process Engineering and Technology of Polymer and Carbon Materials Faculty of Chemistry, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology.

The supervisors of the thesis are Grażyna Gryglewicz, BEng, PhD, DSc, ProfTit and Alicja Bachmatiuk, BEng, PhD, DSc.