Graphene synthesis

The promise of graphene, a two-dimensional hexagonal form of elemental carbon, as a revolutionary material has sparked a flurry of research into its optical, electronic, thermal, and mechanical properties. The most famous method of isolating graphene sheets, introduced by Novoselov et al. in 2004 [1], uses adhesive tape to mechanically cleave graphite crystals into successively thinner platelets. This micromechanical cleavage is time-consuming and produces an abundance of few- and multilayer graphene along with single-layer material. In addition, the area of the graphene sheet obtained by this method is limited by the initial size of the graphite crystal. These limitations of micromechanical cleavage, along with the explosion of interest in graphene in general, have led researchers to devise a number of alternative methods for graphene synthesis. In this review, we discuss different synthetic methods for obtaining graphene along with their advantages and disadvantages and then introduce current avenues of research in this rapidly expanding field.