Thinning vertical graphenes, tuning electrical response: from semiconducting to metallic

A simple, uniquely plasma-enabled and environment-friendly process to reduce the thickness of vertically standing graphenes to only 4-5 graphene layers and arranging them in dense, ultra-large surface area, ultra-open-edge-length, self-organized and interconnected networks is demonstrated. The approach for the ultimate thickness reduction to 1-2 graphene layers is also proposed. The vertical graphene networks are optically transparent and show tunable electric properties from semiconducting to semi-metallic and metallic at room and near-room temperature, thus recovering semimetallic properties of a single-layer graphene.