Determination of the stacking order of curved few-layered graphene systems

Abstract

We report a facile method to efficiently visualize the atomic carbon network of curved few-layered graphitic systems including folded bi-layer graphene, nanoribbon edges and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (straight and bent), via the processing of aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (AC-HRTEM) images. This technique is also able to atomically resolve the structure of overlapping graphene layers with different orientations, thus enabling us to determine the stacking order of multiple graphene layers. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to identify the stacking order of a misoriented 4-layer closed-edge graphene and a metal-semiconductor double-walled carbon nanotube junction.