Frogs and beetles help develop a new way to grow graphene on silicon

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) developed a one-step method to grow and transfer high-quality graphene to silicon or other stiff substrates.

The new method, called "face-to-face transfer" was derived by beetles and tree frogs and how they keep their feet attached to fully submerged leaves. The idea is to grow graphene on copper-coated silicon. The copper is etched away while the graphene is held in place by bubbles that form capillary bridges. This keeps the graphene on the silicon and prevents it from peeling off during the etching process. When the etching is complete the graphene is attached to the silicon.