Atomic structure of reduced graphene oxide.

Gómez-Navarro, Cristina; Meyer, Jannik C; Sundaram, Ravi S; Chuvilin, Andrey; Kurasch, Simon; Burghard, Marko; Kern, Klaus; Kaiser, Ute · Nano Lett · 2010

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Using high resolution transmission electron microscopy, we identify the specific atomic scale features in chemically derived graphene monolayers that originate from the oxidation-reduction treatment of graphene. The layers are found to comprise defect-free graphene areas with sizes of a few nanometers interspersed with defect areas dominated by clustered pentagons and heptagons. Interestingly, all carbon atoms in these defective areas are bonded to three neighbors maintaining a planar sp(2)-configuration, which makes them undetectable by spectroscopic techniques. Furthermore, we observe that they introduce significant in-plane distortions and strain in the surrounding lattice.