Weighing graphene with QCM to monitor interfacial mass changes

Abstract

In this Letter, we experimentally determined the mass density of graphene using quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) as a mechanical resonator. We developed a transfer printing technique to integrate large area single-layer graphene on QCM. By monitoring the resonant frequency of an oscillating quartz crystal loaded with graphene, we were able to measure the mass density of graphene as ∼118 ng/cm2, which is significantly larger than the ideal graphene (∼76 ng/cm2) mainly due to the presence of wrinkles and organic/inorganic residues on graphene sheets. High sensitivity of the quartz crystal resonator allowed us to determine the number of graphene layers in a particular sample. Additionally, we extended our technique to probe interfacial mass variation during adsorption of biomolecules on graphene surface and plasma-assisted oxidation of graphene.