Eco-friendly graphene synthesis on Cu foil electroplated by reusing Cu etchants

Graphene film grown by chemical vapor deposition using Cu substrate is promising for industrial applications. After etching the Cu substrate, which is essential step in graphene transfer process, the etchant solution must be chemically treated to prevent water pollution. Here we investigated that a method of reusing Cu etchant used to synthesize graphene, the synthesis of graphene on the resulting reused Cu films (R-G), and the application of R-G to organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs). The turn-on voltage of OLEDs based on the R-G electrode was 4.2 V, and the efficiencies of OPVs based on the R-G electrode were 5.9–5.95%, that are similar to or better than those of the indium-tin-oxide-based devices. These results suggest that the reusing of Cu foil by the electroplating method could reduce the cost of graphene synthesis, thus opening a wide range of applications in graphene electronics.