Statistical Raman Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy on Heterogeneous Graphene Obtained after Reduction of Graphene Oxide
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Abstract
Graphene oxide can be used as a precursor to graphene, but the quality of graphene flakes is highly heterogeneous. Scanning Raman microscopy (SRM) is used to characterize films of graphene derived from flakes of graphene oxide with an almost intact carbon framework (ai-GO). The defect density of these flakes is visualized in detail by analyzing the intensity and full width at half-maximum of the most pronounced Raman peaks. In addition, we superimpose the SRM results with AFM images and correlate the spectroscopic results with the morphology. Furthermore, we use the SRM technique to display the amount of defects in a film of graphene. Thus, an area of 250 × 250 μm2 of graphene is probed with a step-size increment of 1 μm. We are able to visualize the position of graphene flakes, edges and the substrate. Finally, we alter parameters of measurement to analyze the quality of graphene in a fast and reliable way. The described method can be used to probe and visualize the quality of graphene films.