A single sheet of sp²-hybridized carbon atoms, called graphene, is presently the most widely studied material in the scientific community.  Following a brief introduction of graphene and its unique properties, I will present two popular methods for preparing graphene for spectroscopic studies.  In carbon science, spectroscopy has played a dominant role in unraveling several fundamental properties of nanostructured carbons like fullerenes and carbon nanotubes.  Drawing from these spectroscopic studies, the effective roles of Raman and UV-vis spectroscopy in elucidating the vibration and electronic properties of graphene will be discussed.

This work was done jointly by R. Podila (Clemson University), R. Rao (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base), and Masa Ishigami (University of Central Florida).