The investigation of graphene film as a new electrical contact material

Abstract

With the advent of nanotechnology research, new nano-materials and nano-structural devices have been invented and fabricated. Particularly low dimensional materials such as fullerene, carbon nanotube and graphene have been investigated intensively in order to realize new functional electronic devices on a smaller scale. Since graphene surface is inactive chemically and electrically conductive, graphene film on copper is thought to be a promising electrical contact material to prevent from oxidation in air and we have started to investigate the electrical contact property with nano-indentation manipulator in scanning electron microscope. Force-resistance characteristics with and without graphene on copper were measured. Compared with copper foil, graphene film showed very stable and conductive force-resistance characteristics even after oxidation process of 180°C for 16 hours in air condition. This indicates that graphene coating is very effective to refrain from surface oxidation on copper substrate.