AVS 59th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition
    Graphene and Related Materials Focus Topic Thursday Sessions
       Session GR-ThP

Paper GR-ThP1
Using Raman Spectroscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy to Guide the Development of Graphene-Based Materials

Thursday, November 1, 2012, 6:00 pm, Room Central Hall

Session: Graphene and Related Materials Poster Session
Presenter: T.S. Nunney, Thermo Fisher Scientific, UK
Authors: T.S. Nunney, Thermo Fisher Scientific, UK
M.H. Wall, Thermo Fisher Scientific, UK
Correspondent: Click to Email
The potential uses of graphene are currently being explored by the materials science community. Its immediate potential as a transparent conductive electrode for the microelectronics industry is already being exploited; the unique combination of electronic, chemical and structural properties exhibited by graphene are already having a significant impact on the development of thin film transistors and touch-screen devices. Further applications for the development of graphene-based catalytic systems and molecular sensors are also underway. Good materials characterization is required at all steps in the creation of new graphene devices, from guiding the initial graphene synthesis and transfer to the desired substrate, to chemical modification and analysis of the finished device. In this presentation we will show how a multi-technique approach using both Raman spectroscopy and XPS can address the challenges posed at these steps. Raman microscopy is an analytical technique that is well suited for the characterization of graphene. It is a vibrational spectroscopy that that is very sensitive to small changes in the geometric structure of a molecule and its environment. This sensitivity allows Raman to be used as a probe for a number of properties important to a specific graphene samples, such as layer thickness. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is ideally suited to the determination of the surface chemistry and the way in which that chemistry changes in the surface and near-surface region. The technique provides quantitative elemental and chemical information with extremely high surface specificity and is ideal for comprehensively and quantitatively characterising the elemental composition and chemical bonding states at surfaces and interfaces. This approach will be illustrated by examples from graphene samples created by mechanical exfoliation, chemical reduction and CVD methods.