Iron Particle Nanodrilling of Few Layer Graphene at Low Electron Beam Accelerating Voltages

Atomic vacancies in graphene are created under relatively low energy electron bombardment, but the formation of vacancies is significanlty enhanced by iron nanocatalysis. The evolution of the overall process involves nanoparticle agglomeration, interlayer migration, and confinement to nearby defects. The catalytic activation of metal nanoparticles via elecron irradiation on graphene-like surfaces appears to be a novel process that can be used to obtain porous graphene sheets with high surface areas. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.