We describe the structural and electronic properties of graphene doped with substitutional impurities of 4d and 5d transition metals. The adsorption energies and distances for 4d and 5d metals in graphene show similar trends for the later groups in the periodic table, which are also well-known characteristics of 3d elements. However, along earlier groups the 4d impurities in graphene show very similar adsorption energies, distances and magnetic moments to the 5d ones, which can be related to the influence of the 4d and 5d lanthanide contraction. Surprisingly, within the manganese group, the total magnetic moment of 3 μB for manganese is reduced to 1 μB for technetium and rhenium. We find that compared with 3d elements, the larger size of the 4d and 5d elements causes a high degree of hybridization with the neighbouring carbon atoms, reducing spin splitting in the d levels. It seems that the magnetic adjustment of graphene could be significantly different if 4d or 5d impurities are used instead of 3d impurities.

We carried out density functional calculations to study the adsorption of Co13 clusters on graphene. Several free isomers were deposited at different positions with respect to the hexagonal lattice nodes, allowing us to study even the hcp 2d isomer, which was recently obtained as the most stable one. Surprisingly, the Co13 clusters attached to graphene prefer icosahedron‐like structures in which the low‐lying isomer is much distorted; in such structures, they are linked with more bonds than those reported in previous works. For any isomer, the most stable position binds to graphene by the Co atoms that can lose electrons. We find that the charge transfer between graphene and the clusters is small enough to conclude that the Co–graphene binding is not ionic‐like but chemical. Besides, the same order of stability among the different isomers on doped graphene is kept. These findings could also be of interest for magnetic clusters on graphenic nanostructures such as ribbons and nanotubes.