Graphene, a two-dimensional (2D) carbon nanomaterial, has attracted worldwide attention owing to its fascinating properties. Graphene, first manufactured by micromechanical exfoliation in 2004, has been regarded as a typical nanomaterial in the 21st century due to its great potential for use in various fields such as information industry, electronics, environment and energy, biotechnology, chemical industry, etc.
Graphene can be fabricated by electrochemical methods such as mechanical exfoliation of graphite, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on copper film surface, cutting of carbon nanotubes, liquid phase exfoliation and Hummers method.
Since the unique properties of graphene are largely determined by its structure, it is important to study the number of layers that reflect its structural properties.
The methods for determining the number of layers of graphene include Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), specific surface area measurement (BET), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These methods have relatively high accuracy, but they require high cost and high-quality equipment.
Ri Ju Song, a researcher at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology, has proposed a method for determining the number of layers of graphene obtained by liquid phase exfoliation using XRD diffraction and Laue functions.
The results calculated by the Laue function model are in close agreement with the experimental data measured by Raman spectroscopy.
This method is relatively simple, but has the advantage of estimating the number of graphene layers with low cost and simple equipment.
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