Graphene Analysis and Quality Assurance

Intertek offers a full suite of techniques to characterise the structure and quality of graphene and graphene-based devices, helping manufacturers to optimise the material they produce, and customers to verify the quality of the graphene that they are buying.

Graphene has attracted significant interest recently. Comprised of thin sheets of carbon with exceptional mechanical and electronic properties, graphene has the potential to revolutionise the electronics, energy and many other industries. The immediate (and major) challenge is to produce high quality graphene in sufficient quantities to permit these applications to be developed and realised in daily life. 

Graphene quality varies enormously depending on production conditions, so manufacturers need rapid, reliable feedback on structure and quality to optimise their processes.  Equally, downstream users need tools to assess the quality of the graphene that they are incorporating into their products. Intertek scientists have the tools and experience to help graphene producers and product developers to take this technology forwards.

For graphene in devices the application of TEM, Raman and XPS are able to characterise raw graphene and devices fabricated from it. For example, we can produce images that show the distribution of graphene on devices, and the spatial variation of quality parameters such as thickness, elemental composition and defect levels.

Graphene Testing Services:

• Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) – relative amounts of graphene, graphite/soot and nanotubes
• Energy Dispersive X Ray Analysis (EDX) – elemental analysis coupled to TEM and SEM
• Raman Spectroscopy – quantify defect levels and graphene sheet quality (G/D and G/G’ ratios), sheet thickness (number of layers)
• X Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) - sp2/sp3 carbon ratio, quantification of surface chemical modifications, measuring reduction of graphene oxide
• Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) – accurate (bulk) determination of specified elements
• ICP-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) –simultaneous semi quantitative determination of 70+ elements
• Oxidative combustion / Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) – total carbon content