There are hundreds of companies worldwide claiming to produce “graphene,” showing a large variation in its properties. A systematic and reliable protocol is developed to test graphene quality using electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, elemental analysis, X‐ray photoelectron spectrometry, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy, which is used to study graphene from 60 producers. The statistical nature of the liquid‐phase exfoliation of graphite is established. It is shown that the current classification of graphene flakes used in the market is erroneous. A new classification is proposed in terms of distribution functions for number of layers and flake size. It is shown unequivocally that the quality of the graphene produced in the world today is rather poor, not optimal for most applications, and most companies are producing graphite microplatelets. This is possibly the main reason for the slow development of graphene applications, which usually require a customized solution in terms of graphene properties. It is argued that the creation of stringent standards for graphene characterization and production, taking into account both the physical properties, as well as the requirements from the particular application, is the only way forward to create a healthy and reliable worldwide graphene market.

中文翻译：

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全球石墨烯鳞片生产

全球有数百家公司声称生产“石墨烯”，表明其性能存在很大差异。开发了一种系统可靠的协议，以使用电子显微镜，原子力显微镜，拉曼光谱，元素分析，X射线光电子能谱以及扫描和透射电子显微镜来测试石墨烯的质量，该协议用于研究60个生产商的石墨烯。建立了石墨液相剥离的统计性质。结果表明，目前市场上使用的石墨烯薄片的分类是错误的。根据层数和薄片尺寸的分布函数，提出了一种新的分类方法。毫无疑问地表明，当今世界上生产的石墨烯的质量相当差，对于大多数应用而言并非最佳，大多数公司都在生产石墨微片。这可能是石墨烯应用发展缓慢的主要原因，因为石墨烯应用通常需要定制的解决方案。有人认为，要建立严格的石墨烯表征和生产标准，同时兼顾物理性能和特定应用的要求，是建立健康，可靠的全球石墨烯市场的唯一途径。