Mechanical thinning to make few-layer graphene from pencil lead

Simple, fast and low cost production of graphene and few-layer graphene (FLG) with high yield is presented. The synthesis consists of mechanical ablation of pencil lead on a harsh glass surface with simultaneous ultrasonication followed by a purification to remove the inorganic binder present in the pencil lead. The combination of several characterization techniques, i.e. SEM, TEM and Raman show that FLG with lateral size of few micrometers, consisted of 1 up to 20 and occasionally up to fifty sheets is obtained by this process.