Graphene: The magic material

Graphene is the most sought after material of the 21st century. This atomically thin sheet of hexagonal carbon atoms possesses superlative physical, mechanical, electrical, and optical properties. Graphene research has grown tremendously over the last decade after Geim and Novoselov received Nobel Prize in 2010 for the successful exfoliation of graphene from graphite. Since then, researchers have come up with a handful of techniques to synthesize graphene/graphene oxide. Graphene produced from each method has distinguished properties, and graphene applications are highly dependent on the mode of synthesis. However, industrial scale-up production of high-quality pristine graphene is still challenging. The major top-down and bottom-up methods of graphene synthesis will be discussed in this chapter. Several spectroscopic, microscopic, and diffraction techniques are used extensively to characterize monolayered and few-layered graphene sheets, which will also be elucidated briefly.