Everything you want to know about graphene in one guide

Discovered only just this century, graphene promises to revolutionise everything from energy storage to electronics, sensors and biomedical applications. Consisting of a 2D honeycomb-like layer of carbon atoms only one atom thick, this material is extremely strong, thin, flexible and light. It’s an exceptional conductor of electricity and heat. However, the dearth of information on how to produce and process graphene is preventing its widespread uptake.

A comprehensive guide prepared with support from the EU-funded GrapheneCore1 and GrapheneCore2 projects is now striving to address this lack of information. Published in the journal ‘2D Materials’, the review provides an overview of the main techniques used to produce and process graphene and related materials (GRMs) and discusses the basic characterisation procedures.

The guide condenses the theoretical knowledge and practical experience gathered over seven years in the course of the Graphene Flagship initiative, of which GrapheneCore1 and GrapheneCore2 form a part. “Graphene Flagship researchers have already shown that at least 1,800 different layered materials exist—and only a handful of those have been investigated to date,” observes Graphene Flagship Science and Technology Officer Andrea C. Ferrari in a news item posted on the ‘MIS-ASIA’ website. “This authoritative guide will help researchers in academia and industry plan their large scale and reproducible production of graphene, drawing from the experience developed with graphene itself,” continues Ferrari, who is also one of the guide’s authors.Different sections of the review cover techniques for piecing together individual components into more complex structures such as graphene nanoribbons and carbon nanomembranes, as well as methods for breaking down layered substances such as graphite. Other sections focus on growing GRMs on different substrates and processing them after growth so that they can be placed on a chosen surface. Chemical vapour deposition, transfer technologies, the growth of particular layered materials, advances in GRM functionalisation and popular characterisation techniques are also discussed in the informative guide. “The article encompasses the description of the most popular methods to produce GRMs,” explains review coordinator and Graphene Flagship Work Package Leader for Enabling Materials Mar García-Hernández in the same news item. “This publication also describes some of the technological problems users might encounter, such as the processing of inks and the transfer of materials.”

The information is geared towards helping readers reproduce the results. The authors aim to stimulate interest in GRMs and promote their use in a variety of novel applications. “Understanding this information is essential for users to be able to exploit GRMs effectively, as their characteristics are related to and can be tailored by the process used to make them. For scientists who want to study GRMs, or companies that want to mass produce these materials, this knowledge is vital,” García-Hernández remarks. GrapheneCore1 (Graphene-based disruptive technologies) and GrapheneCore2 (Graphene Flagship Core Project 2) ended in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

For more information, please see:

Graphene Flagship project website