Giant superstructures formed on graphite surface treated with NaOH solutions studied by scanning tunneling microscopy

Giant superstructures with 1.71 and 9.1 nm lattice constants were observed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) on the surface of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) treated with NaOH solution. These structures were analyzed by the moiré pattern hypothesis. For both the structures, the orientation angle mismatch of the giant lattices relative to the original atomic lattice of graphite was observed between the theoretical and experimental values. In addition, for the latter structure, the observed boundaries between the superstructural domain and the normal areas were straight, which is different from the theoretically predicted zigzag shape boundary. These discrepancies suggest the existence of some other mechanism responsible for the giant superstructures appearing in graphite intercalation compound surfaces.