On the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize mass-produced graphene nanoplatelets
Raman spectroscopy is one of the most common methods to characterize graphene-related 2D materials, providing information on a wide range of physical and chemical properties. Because of typical sample inhomogeneity, Raman spectra are acquired from several locations across a sample, and analysis is c...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Beilstein-Institut
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.14.42 |
| _version_ | 1797835368874115072 |
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| author | Keith R. Paton Konstantinos Despotelis Naresh Kumar Piers Turner Andrew J. Pollard |
| author_facet | Keith R. Paton Konstantinos Despotelis Naresh Kumar Piers Turner Andrew J. Pollard |
| author_sort | Keith R. Paton |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Raman spectroscopy is one of the most common methods to characterize graphene-related 2D materials, providing information on a wide range of physical and chemical properties. Because of typical sample inhomogeneity, Raman spectra are acquired from several locations across a sample, and analysis is carried out on the averaged spectrum from all locations. This is then used to characterize the “quality” of the graphene produced, in particular the level of exfoliation for top-down manufactured materials. However, these have generally been developed using samples prepared with careful separation of unexfoliated materials. In this work we assess these metrics when applied to non-ideal samples, where unexfoliated graphite has been deliberately added to the exfoliated material. We demonstrate that previously published metrics, when applied to averaged spectra, do not allow the presence of this unexfoliated material to be reliably detected. Furthermore, when a sufficiently large number of spectra are acquired, it is found that by processing and classifying individual spectra, rather than the averaged spectrum, it is possible to identify the presence of this material in the sample, although quantification of the amount remains approximate. We therefore recommend this approach as a robust methodology for reliable characterization of mass-produced graphene-related 2D materials using confocal Raman spectroscopy. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:53:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-495d947d4a3447068ee7569babfa64f6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2190-4286 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T14:53:02Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | Beilstein-Institut |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology |
| spelling | doaj.art-495d947d4a3447068ee7569babfa64f62023-05-02T09:01:17ZengBeilstein-InstitutBeilstein Journal of Nanotechnology2190-42862023-04-0114150952110.3762/bjnano.14.422190-4286-14-42On the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize mass-produced graphene nanoplateletsKeith R. Paton0Konstantinos Despotelis1Naresh Kumar2Piers Turner3Andrew J. Pollard4National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, TW11 0LW, UK National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, TW11 0LW, UK National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, TW11 0LW, UK National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, TW11 0LW, UK National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, TW11 0LW, UK Raman spectroscopy is one of the most common methods to characterize graphene-related 2D materials, providing information on a wide range of physical and chemical properties. Because of typical sample inhomogeneity, Raman spectra are acquired from several locations across a sample, and analysis is carried out on the averaged spectrum from all locations. This is then used to characterize the “quality” of the graphene produced, in particular the level of exfoliation for top-down manufactured materials. However, these have generally been developed using samples prepared with careful separation of unexfoliated materials. In this work we assess these metrics when applied to non-ideal samples, where unexfoliated graphite has been deliberately added to the exfoliated material. We demonstrate that previously published metrics, when applied to averaged spectra, do not allow the presence of this unexfoliated material to be reliably detected. Furthermore, when a sufficiently large number of spectra are acquired, it is found that by processing and classifying individual spectra, rather than the averaged spectrum, it is possible to identify the presence of this material in the sample, although quantification of the amount remains approximate. We therefore recommend this approach as a robust methodology for reliable characterization of mass-produced graphene-related 2D materials using confocal Raman spectroscopy.https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.14.42few-layer graphenegraphenemetrologyquality controlraman spectroscopy |
| spellingShingle | Keith R. Paton Konstantinos Despotelis Naresh Kumar Piers Turner Andrew J. Pollard On the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize mass-produced graphene nanoplatelets Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology few-layer graphene graphene metrology quality control raman spectroscopy |
| title | On the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize mass-produced graphene nanoplatelets |
| title_full | On the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize mass-produced graphene nanoplatelets |
| title_fullStr | On the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize mass-produced graphene nanoplatelets |
| title_full_unstemmed | On the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize mass-produced graphene nanoplatelets |
| title_short | On the use of Raman spectroscopy to characterize mass-produced graphene nanoplatelets |
| title_sort | on the use of raman spectroscopy to characterize mass produced graphene nanoplatelets |
| topic | few-layer graphene graphene metrology quality control raman spectroscopy |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.14.42 |
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