Reconstructed point defects in graphene were created by electron irradiation and annealing. By applying electron microscopy and density functional theory, it was shown that the strain field around these defects reaches far into the unperturbed hexagonal network and that metal atoms had a high affinity to the non-perfect and strained regions of graphene. Metal atoms were attracted by reconstructed defects and bonded with energies of about 2eV. The increased reactivity of the distorted π-electron system in strained graphene permitted the attachment of metal atoms and the tailoring of the properties of graphene.

Migration and Localization of Metal Atoms on Strained Graphene. O.Cretu, A.V.Krasheninnikov, J.A.Rodríguez-Manzo, L.Sun, R.M.Nieminen, F.Banhart: Physical Review Letters, 2010, 105[19], 196102