Structure of Carbon Materials Explored by Local Transmission Electron Microscopy and Global Powder Diffraction Probes

Transmission electron microscopy and neutron or X-ray diffraction are powerful techniques available today for characterization of the structure of various carbon materials at nano and atomic levels. They provide complementary information but each one has advantages and limitations. Powder X-ray or neutron diffraction measurements provide structural information representative for the whole volume of a material under probe but features of singular nano-objects cannot be identified. Transmission electron microscopy, in turn, is able to probe single nanoscale objects. In this review, it is demonstrated how transmission electron microscopy and powder X-ray and neutron diffraction methods complement each other by providing consistent structural models for different types of carbons such as carbon blacks, glass-like carbons, graphene, nanotubes, nanodiamonds, and nanoonions.