Engineered Graphene Defects Unlock New Tech Potential

How Engineered Defects Improve Graphene Performance

2D materials, forming a single layer of atoms, of which graphene is the most understood and commonly studied, alongside borophene, goldene, and others, display remarkable properties that are strongly different from the same atoms in a normal 3D atomic structure.

In large part, this comes from graphene’s delocalized π-electrons, which can move freely across its 2D lattice, giving it exceptional thermal, electrical, and mechanical properties.

But the best performance is often observed when these materials are not perfectly homogeneous, but contain extra impurities that create further unique quantum and chemical effects.

“Our study explores a new way to make graphene. This super-thin, super-strong material is made of carbon atoms, and while perfect graphene is remarkable, it is sometimes too perfect.

It interacts weakly with other materials and lacks crucial electronic properties required in the semiconductor industry.”

David Duncan – Associate Professor from the University of Nottingham

Researchers at various UK, German, and Swedish universities (a collaboration between more than 12 different universities) have found a way to introduce such a “defect” into graphene in a 1-step procedure, opening the way to radically improved graphene materials.

They published their findings in the scientific journal Chemical Science¹, under the title “One-step synthesis of graphene containing topological defects”.

The Limitations of Graphene

Touted as a miracle material since its discovery in 2004, graphene has been slow at real-world adoption for more than 2 decades later.

This is because graphene rarely interacts with other materials the way researchers and manufacturers would want it to.

Graphene is normally built from a repeating pattern of six carbon atoms arranged in a flat ring.

Source: Journal Of Nanotechnology

Other molecules inserted into this structure can make it interact better with other materials, but often degrade the properties that make graphene interesting in the first place.

These methods are also poorly controlled, resulting in inconsistent results and a non-homogeneous end result.

So the trick is to find how to improve graphene interactions while preserving its properties.

Finding The Right Defect

Using computation, the researchers determined that the defect targeted in this research should be neighboring 5 and 7-atom rings, known in physics as a Stone-Wales defect.

Azupyrene, an organic molecule with a unique shape, was found to almost perfectly match what was needed to improve graphene. Because azupyrene naturally contains this 5- and 7-ring geometry, it acts as a “template” during growth rather than random damage.

Source: Chemical Science

The graphene + azupyrene was grown on a copper substrate, using a method called chemical vapour deposition (CVD), commonly used for creating graphene and semiconductors.

The growth was done in an oxygen-free environment with ultra-high vacuum (UHV), with as low as 10⁻¹⁰ mbar of pressure.

Assessing Modified Graphene Performance

The cleanliness of the crystal was assessed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM).

Source: Chemical Science

It appeared that at highly elevated substrate temperatures, as high as 1000 K (726°C / 1340°F), azupyrene forms ideal graphene that demonstrates moiré superstructures.

The microscopic observation shows 5-/7-membered ring defects embedded into a lattice of 6-membered rings (graphene).

Source: Chemical Science

At high concentration and with temperature adjustment, the 5- and 7-membered rings are present in islands, as demonstrated with non-contact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM).

So not only can this method produce consistent results, but the exact concentration of azupyrene integrated into the graphene can be fine-tuned using different temperatures during the CVD process.

Source: Chemical Science

Applications

Swipe to scroll →

This is one of the first times that graphene “defects” are being introduced not only with the perfect type of molecule for it, but also in a perfectly controllable way.

“By carefully choosing the starting molecule and the growth conditions, we’ve shown it’s possible to grow graphene in which imperfections can be introduced in a more controlled way. We characterize the signatures of these imperfects by bringing together atomic-scale imaging, spectroscopy, and computational simulation.”

Professor Reinhard Maurer – University of Warwick

This modified graphene can be tied to other materials a lot more easily, opening a whole new space of application for this new type of graphene.

We found that the defects can make the graphene more “sticky” to other materials, making it more useful as a catalyst, as well as improving its capability of detecting different gases for use in sensors.

The defects can also alter the electronic and magnetic properties of the graphene, for potential applications in the semiconductor industry.”

David Duncan – Associate Professor from the University of Nottingham

We previously reported how graphene is being increasingly used for spintronics, hydrogen fuel cells, 6G THz antennas, and battery thermal management, among many other examples.

CVD Technology and Veeco’s Role in Advanced Materials

Veeco Instruments Inc.

Veeco has been a major supplier of equipment to the semiconductor manufacturing industry since its foundation in 1945. Its machines are used in producing advanced EUV chip making, 5G antennas, hard drives, LIDAR, LEDs, power electronics for EVs, etc.

Source: Veeco

The company’s main technological focus is the same CVD process used for borophene production, or more precisely, MOCVD (Metal-Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition).

Just last month (November 5, 2025), Veeco announced a major order for its Propel®300 MOCVD system from a leading power semiconductor manufacturer. This order, specifically for Gallium Nitride (GaN) epitaxy, validates the growing commercial demand for precise deposition equipment similar to what would be required for scaled graphene production.

The company is geographically diversified, with China representing only 28% of total revenues, although the rest of the Asia-Pacific region accounts for half of total revenues, reflecting the region’s importance in electronic component manufacturing.

This technology has progressively been used for more and more manufacturing processes, from hard drives in the 1990s to LEDs and advanced semiconductors today.

Source: Veeco

As a leader in this niche segment of the semiconductor industry, Veeco could be a good candidate to bet on the rise of more CVD applications. And as an equipment manufacturer, Veeco is not dependent on what niche market or technology is used, as long as it uses CVD somehow at one step of its process.

This led the company to project a rapid growth of its total addressable market, driven in large part by advanced laser annealing and ion beam deposition techniques.

Source: Veeco

Such growth could also be stemming from the growing usage of graphene, tungsten, and borophene, as we progressively get better at manipulating matter at the atomic level and leverage 2D materials for new applications.

It will also likely benefit from the massive trends of digitalization, AI, and electrification, whether it massively uses 2D materials soon or not.

Latest Veeco Instruments (VECO) Stock News and Developments

Study Referenced

^{1. Klein, B. P., Stoodley, M. A., Deyerling, J., et al. (2025). One-step synthesis of graphene containing topological defects. Chemical Science, 16, 19403–19413. https://doi.org/10.1039/d5sc03699b}