A large interlaboratory electron diffraction study of monolayer graphene
- Author(s)
- Evan Tillotson, William Thornley, William Talbott, Alexander S Eggeman, Daria Kriuchkova, Sam Sullivan-Allsop, Matt Smith, Xuzhao Liu, Ashley Slattery, Pei Lay Yap, Dusan Losic, Zhun Xu, Huan Wang, Jim Ciston, Alexander Rakowski, Stephanie M Ribet, Benjamin H Savitzky, Manfred E Schuster, Christopher S Allen, Danielle Douglas-Henry, Valeria Nicolosi, Andrew Herzing, Jacques O’Connell, Ezra J Olivier, Jan Neethling, Yi-Chao Zou, Ercin Duran, Rongsheng Cai, Duc-The Ngo, Roman Gorbachev, Jonas Haas, Michael Schlegel, Jannik Meyer, Alba Centeno, Amaia Pesquera, Amaia Zurutuza, Sungsu Kang, Jungwon Park, Ivan Erofeev, Utkur Mirsaidov, Colin Ophus, Christian Rentenberger, Thomas Waitz, Jani Kotakoski, Abhijit Roy, Raul Arenal, Andrew J Pollard, Sarah J Haigh
- Abstract
Standardisation of data collection and analysis is essential to enable commercialisation of 2D materials in a wide range of technologies. Selected area electron diffraction (SAED) in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) is one of the key methods for distinguishing monolayer from bilayer and few-layer graphene by comparing the 1st and 2nd order diffraction spot intensities. Yet there are many factors that can affect the reliability of data collection and interpretation, causing the measurement of monolayer samples to deviate from the literature boundary condition of < 1 for monolayer graphene (1LG). Here we present the results of a large interlaboratory SAED comparison study, where 15 international laboratories measured and analysed nominally identical samples of chemical vapour deposited graphene. Large variations were observed in the measured ratios of diffraction spot intensities, with the largest variance associated with poor quality SAED data resulting from inadequate specimen handling and storage. To inform the reliable determination of monolayer thickness from SAED patterns we provide a description of best practice for specimen handling, TEM operation, data collection and analysis. This work was undertaken within VAMAS Technical Working Area 41: Graphene and related 2D materials—Project 9, the results of which have been directly incorporated into ISO/TS 21356–2 for the characterisation of graphene sheets. We find that when this methodology is followed, 1LG can be distinguished from bilayer or thicker material with high confidence where analysis of a single SAED pattern gives < 1.2, even in the absence of precise specimen tilting.
- Organisation(s)
- Physics of Nanostructured Materials
- External organisation(s)
- University of Manchester, University of Adelaide, Peking University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Johnson Matthey, University of Oxford, Diamond Light Source Ltd, Trinity College Dublin, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Sun Yat-sen University, Istanbul Technical University, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Graphenea SA, Seoul National University (SNU), National University of Singapore (NUS), Stanford University, Universidad de Zaragoza, National Physical Laboratory
- Journal
- 2D Materials
- Volume
- 13
- No. of pages
- 16
- ISSN
- 2053-1583
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1583/ae2ca1
- Publication date
- 06-2026
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103018 Materials physics, 103042 Electron microscopy
- Keywords
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/39e2340b-38a5-4e98-a895-562a6f605181