The effect of platinum catalyst on the thermally activated healing of defects produced in a graphene-ribbon network by irradiating glassy carbon with a 15 key hydrogen-ion beam has been investigated by Raman spectrometry. The platinum has been incorporated into glassy carbon by hydrogen-ion beam irradiation of a thin layer of platinum salt deposited on the glassy carbon surface. The presence of platinum is beneficial because it becomes incorporated by ion-beam mixing and facilitates the structural healing of the amorphous subsurface layer by decreasing the healing temperature from 500 degrees C to 270 degrees C in comparison to irradiated glassy carbon that contains no platinum. In the case of chemically doped platinum in glassy carbon the in-plane structural ordering, demonstrated by the decreasing I-D/I-G ratio, is a linear function of the platinum added to the phenol-formaldehyde resin as precursor. The results of the density functional theory calculations showed that platinum mediates the reorganization of the bond network and the removal of defects present in the graphene layer. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.