Introduction

Graphene is a potential material in 21st century due to its fascinating properties:

excellent electrical conductivity, good mechanical strength, high surface area and
chemical stability. Some of application now are super capacitors, sensors,
nanoelectronics, solar cells, polymer composites, photocatalysis, etc.

Fundamental knowledge about graphene

Density of graphene

The unit hexagonal cell of graphene contains two carbon atoms and has an area of
0.052 nm2.We can thus calculate its density as being 0.77 mg/m2. A hypothetical
hammock measuring 1m2 made from graphene would thus weigh 0.77 mg.
Optical transparency of graphene

Graphene is almost transparent, it absorbs only 2.3% of the light intensity,

independent of the wavelength in the optical domain. This number is given by ,
where is the fine structure constant. Thus suspended graphene does not have any
color.
Strength of graphene

Graphene has a breaking strength of 42N/m. Steel has a breaking strength in the
range of 250-1200 MPa= 0.25-1.2x109 N/m2. For a hypothetical steel film of the
same thickness as graphene (which can be taken to be 3.35=3.35x10-10 m, i.e.
the layer thickness in graphite), this would give a 2D breaking strength of 0.0840.40 N/m. Thus graphene is more than 100 times stronger than the strongest steel.
In our 1 m2 hammock tied between two trees you could place a weight of
approximately 4 kg before it would break. It should thus be possible to make an
almost invisible hammock out of graphene that could hold a cat without breaking.
The hammock would weigh less than one mg, corresponding to the weight of one
of the cats whiskers.
Electrical conductivity of graphene

The sheet conductivity of a 2D material is given by = en. The mobility is

theoretically limited to =200,000 cm2V1s1 by acoustic phonons at a carrier
density of n=1012 cm2. The 2D sheet resistivity, also called the resistance per
square, is then 31 . Our fictional hammock measuring 1m2 would thus have a
resistance of 31 . Using the layer thickness we get a bulk conductivity of

0.96x106 -1cm-1 for graphene. This is somewhat higher than the conductivity of
copper which is 0.60x106 -1cm-1.
Thermal conductivity

The thermal conductivity of graphene is dominated by phonons and has been

measured to be approximately 5000 Wm1K1. Copper at room temperature has a
thermal conductivity of 401 Wm1K1. Thus graphene conducts heat 10 times
better than copper.

Synthetic process and applications

Synthetic process:

Graphene has been synthesized in various ways and on different substrates.

Mechanical exfoliation:

Mechanical exfoliation is the simplest way. They used a simple but effective
mechanical exfoliation method for extracting thin layers of graphite from a
graphite crystal with Scotch tape and then transferred these layers to a silicon
substrate.
Chemical exfoliation:

Graphene and few-layer graphene (FLG) have been grown by chemical vapor
deposition (CVD) from C-containing gases on catalytic metal surfaces and/or by
surface segregation of C dissolved in the bulk of such metals. Depending on the
solubility of C in the metal, the former or the latter can be the dominant growth
process, or they can coexist.
Substrate is very important on the synthetic process. Researches used Pt, Ni, Fe,
Pd, Co as a substrate, however, transforming graphene oxide to graphene is
meeting difficulties such as: how to reduce of graphene oxide after process.

How to analysis, measure the product after synthesizing:

In order to implement researches associated with graphene, list of analyzing
method suitable:
UV-vis spectroscopy: <thoroughly understood and practice this method>
Hall measurement system and Electrochemical workstation: <out of my
knowledge>
Raman spectroscopy: <just have knowledge about principle and how to apply>

Applications at the moment:

The outstanding properties of graphene render it as a versatile candidate for super
capacitors, sensors, nanoelectronics, solar cells, transparent conductive electrodes,
polymer composites, photocatalysis and photoelectrolysis.

References
J. Tamil Illakkiya, P. Usha Rajalakshmi, Rachel Oommen (2016), Nebulized spray
pyrolysis: a new method for synthesis of graphene film and their characteristics
Phaedon Avouris* and Christos Dimitrakopoulos (2012), Graphene: synthesis and
applications

Xia Wang, Shi-Xi Zhao, Liubing Dong, Qian-Long Lu, Jiang Zhu,
Ce-Wen Nan (2016), One-step Synthesis of Surface-enriched
Nickel Cobalt Sulfide Nanoparticles on Graphene for Highperformance Supercapacitors