How graphene-family materials are made

Evidence: Well-supported as a process map. Capacity announcements are not grades.

Mechanical cleavage

Scotch-tape / micromechanical exfoliation from graphite. Best flakes for physics. Terrible area. [[timeline/2004]]

Epitaxy on SiC

Heat SiC; Si leaves; carbon rearranges. Wafer-ish, substrate-bound, expensive. IBM 100 GHz FETs ([[timeline/2010]]).

CVD on metal

Grow on Cu (landmark [[timeline/2009]]) or Ni; transfer off. Path to large optical films ([[timeline/2010]] Bae). Defects: grains, wrinkles, transfer residue, cracks.

Oxide route

Oxidize graphite (Brodie / Staudenmaier / Hummers), exfoliate to GO, optionally reduce to rGO. Scalable, dirty, hydrophilic. [[timeline/before-1900]] · [[timeline/1962]]

Liquid-phase exfoliation (LPE)

Sonicate or shear graphite in solvent; centrifuge to sort. Cascaded centrifugation example: [[topics/research/2026-09-12-few-layer-graphene-centrifugation]]. Typical product is FLG / platelets, not a 2004 Hall bar.

Bottom-up organic / CVD variants

Nanoribbons from molecular precursors; plasma and flame methods; electrochemical exfoliation. Niche or vendor-specific; demand a methods section.

Assembly

Wet spinning, foams, papers, inks, masterbatch. The sheet was made by one of the routes above; this step only packs it. Occupational advice often prefers masterbatch over dry powder ([[topics/policy/2026-09-16-niosh-graphene-exposure]]).

See [[reference/forms]] · [[reference/standards]].