Ultra-strong stability of double-sided fluorinated monolayer graphene and its electrical property characterization

Abstract

Fluorinated graphene has a tunable band gap that is useful in making flexible graphene electronics. But the carbon–fluorine (C–F) bonds in fluorinated graphene can be easily broken by increased temperature or electron beam irradiation. Here, we demonstrate that the stability of fluorinated graphene is mainly determined by its C–F configuration. The double-sided fluorinated graphene has a much stronger stability than the single-sided fluorinated graphene under the same irradiation dose. Density functional theory calculations show that the configuration of double-sided fluorinated graphene has a negative and low formation energy, indicating to be an energetically stable structure. On the contrary, the formation energy of single-sided fluorinated graphene is positive, leading to an unstable C–F bonding that is easily broken by the irradiation. Our findings make a new step towards a more stable and efficient design of graphene electronic devices.