Micropatterning of graphene sheets: recent advances in techniques and applications

Micropatterning of graphene sheets is an emerging research field and advances in this area have developed a variety of practical routes to patterned graphene sheets, which have great potential in various applications such as transparent electrodes, field effect transistors, chem/biosensors and energy devices. This review provides an overview of commonly used techniques for graphene sheet patterning (broadly, lithography, soft-lithography, and direct writing). The basic concepts and significant issues with respect to the patterning strategies and tools are briefly introduced, and the examples of much outstanding research are highlighted. Our aim is to present a comprehensive review of research activities that concentrate on micro-patterning of graphene sheets.