  Steeping interest on graphene research in basic sciences and applications
emphasizes the need for an economical means of synthesizing it. We report a
method for the synthesis of graphene on commercially available stainless steel
foils using direct thermal chemical vapor deposition. Our method of synthesis
and the use of relatively cheap precursors such as ethanol (CH3CH2OH) as a
source of carbon and SS 304 as the substrate, proved to be economically viable.
Presence of single- and few-layer graphene was confirmed using confocal Raman
microscopy/spectroscopy. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic measurements were
further used to establish the influence of various elemental species present in
stainless steel on graphene growth. Role of cooling rate on surface migration
of certain chemical species (oxides of Fe, Cr and Mn) that promote or hinder
the growth of graphene is probed. Such analysis of the chemical species present
on the surface can be promising for graphene based catalytic research.
