Graphene is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. There are other forms of Carbon that we have been using for years such as the graphite found in the common pencil right the way up to the world’s most expensive form of Carbon, Diamond.
The already existing forms of Carbon consist of sheets of Graphene bonded together to form one solid, however Physicists have known about Graphene for some time now but the problem that they faced was trying to separate the single atom thick sheets without them rolling up into a form of cone and this is where technology has advanced with the use of electron beams and atomic force microscopes.
Graphene has been isolated for a while now and this has been well documented in various papers however the reason that the scientists are so excited right now is that this new 2D design opens up a whole new class of materials with novel electronic, optical and mechanical properties.
2D as we know means that the material extends in only 2 dimensions, Length and Width the other dimension is considered as zero.
Here is how a sheet of Graphene looks.
I will go into the various aspects of Graphene at a later date, but first I would like to tell you a bit about the people involved in its creation.
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