Patent ID: 8501531

Claim:
A method for forming graphene material on a surface, comprising the steps of: forming a material substrate; depositing a metal material layer on the material substrate, the metal material layer being a patterned metal material layer having at least one side surface and having a bottom surface in contact with the material substrate and further having a top surface not in contact with the material substrate; forming a desired concentration of carbon in the metal material layer to form a carbon-containing metal material; applying a heating/cooling cycle to the carbon-containing metal material layer to diffuse the carbon within the metal material layer; cooling the carbon-containing metal material layer to precipitate a first graphene material (GM) onto the bottom surface of the metal material layer and further to precipitate a second graphene material (GM2) onto the top surface of the metal material layer and onto the least one side surface of the patterned metal material layer; removing GM2 from the top surface of the metal material layer; and removing the metal material layer without removing the GM; wherein the GM remains on the surface of the material substrate; and wherein the GM2 is not removed from the at least one side of the metal material layer, the GM2 that is not removed comprising a vertical grapheme material structure.