Graphene has recently been the focus of a great deal of attention owing to its outstanding properties, which include high mobility, high thermal conductivity and high structural stability. In this study, a few layer
graphene was successfully synthesized from methane gas using a non-transferred direct current
arc plasma system. Non-transferred
thermal plasma offers high temperature, steep temperature gradient and high enthalpy to enhance the reaction kinetics of
graphene synthesis. In order to prepare high quality few layer
graphene,
graphene products synthesized under several conditions was analyzed comparatively. Effects of gap distance between the plasma torch and
graphite substrate, the flow rate of additional reactant gas, and different types of plasma forming gas on the synthesis of few layer
graphene were investigated. Methane gas was injected into the plasma jet as a
carbon source for the synthesis of
graphene and a
thermal plasma jet was generated by pure
argon or a mixture of
argon-
hydrogen. The results revealed that
hydrogen gas improved the quality of few layer
graphene by inducing surface etching and increasing plasma power.