Oxidation and disorder in few-layered graphene induced by the electron-beam irradiation

Structural changes caused by an electron beam with the high irradiation energy of 5 MeV were investigated in few-layered graphene. Both the original and the irradiated few-layered graphene were characterized by x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that a typical diffraction peak of graphene oxide emerged and this may be attributed to a partial oxidation in few-layered graphene which was induced by the irradiation. In addition, the graphitic structure of few-layered graphene was found to be disordered according to the increased intensity ratio of D to G band. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3587798]