The results of systematic numerical studies of graphene flakes growth in low-temperature arc
discharge plasmas are presented. Diffusion-based growth model was developed, verified using the
previously published experiments, and used to investigate the principal effects of the process parameters
such as plasma density, electron temperature, surface temperature and time of growth
on the size and structure of the plasma-grown graphene flakes. It was demonstrated that the
higher growth temperatures result in larger graphene flakes reaching 5 μm, and simultaneously,
lead to much lower density of the carbon atoms adsorbed on the flake surface. The low density of
the carbon adatoms reduces the probability of the additional graphene layer nucleation on surface
of growing flake, thus eventually resulting in the synthesis of the most valuable single-layered
graphenes.
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