Preservation of the Pt(100) surface reconstruction after growth of a continuous layer of graphene

► We study a graphene layer grown on the clean, reconstructed Pt(100) surface. ► Using STM we find that the reconstruction is preserved after formation of the graphene. ► Based on DFT calculations we rationalize this observation. ► We illustrate the ability of the graphene to grow continuously across steps and domain boundaries. ► We calculate the energies involved in the creation of pentagon-heptagon defects.