Vertical graphene (VG) nanosheets are directly grown below 500 °C on glass substrates by a one-step copper-assisted plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) process. A piece of copper foil is located around a glass substrate as a catalyst in the process. The effect of the copper catalyst on the vertical graphene is evaluated in terms of film morphology, growth rate, carbon density in the plasma and film resistance. The growth rate of the vertical graphene is enhanced by a factor of 5.6 with the copper catalyst with denser vertical graphene. The analysis of optical emission spectra suggests that the carbon radical density is increased with the copper catalyst. Highly conductive VG films having 800 Ω/□ are grown on glass substrates with Cu catalyst at a relatively low temperature.

Many practical applications require flexible high-sensitivity pressure sensors. However, such sensors are difficult to achieve using conventional materials. Engineering the morphology of the electrodes and the topography of the dielectrics has been demonstrated to be effective in boosting the sensing performance of capacitive pressure sensors. In this study, a flexible capacitive pressure sensor with high sensitivity was fabricated by using three-dimensional vertical graphene (VG) as the electrode and micro-pyramidal polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the dielectric layer. The engineering of the VG morphology, size, and interval of the micro-pyramids in the PDMS dielectric layer significantly boosted the sensor sensitivity. As a result, the sensors demonstrated an exceptional sensitivity of up to 6.04 kPa⁻¹ in the pressure range of 0–1 kPa, and 0.69 kPa⁻¹ under 1–10 kPa. Finite element analysis revealed that the micro-pyramid structure in the dielectric layer generated a significant deformation effect under pressure, thereby ameliorating the sensing properties. Finally, the sensor was used to monitor finger joint movement, knee motion, facial expression, and pressure distribution. The results indicate that the sensor exhibits great potential in various applications, including human motion detection and human-machine interaction.

Vertically-grown graphene electrodes are developed for flexible electric double-layer capacitors (EDLC). Solid-state electrolytes and large area flexible electrodes are essential parts for wearable applications. In this work, the vertically-grown graphene electrodes were fabricated by a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition process and applied to flexible electrodes of EDLC. The areal capacitance of the capacitor based on vertical graphene is 2.45 mF cm⁻², which is much better even with solid electrolytes when compared to other reported vertical graphene capacitors. The capacitance also shows good flexibility and it remains unaltered even after 100 000 times of bending or 180 degree folding. These unique features of the capacitor could be ascribed to a discrete ‘tree-like’ morphology of the vertical graphene, which has not been known before.