Read more: "Instant Expert: Graphene"
If carbon is a wonder element, then graphene is a wonder material. Just one atom thick, it is a million times thinner than a piece of paper and can be folded and scrolled like plastic film. Yet it is stronger than diamond and conducts heat and electricity better than copper or gold. It is no wonder that of all the new nanoscale forms of carbon, graphene is attracting the most attention
Graphite, fullerenes and nanotubes (see "Graphene: Engineering carbon") are essentially stacked, wrapped and rolled examples of a more basic material: graphene. If diamond is three-dimensional and graphite something less than that, graphene reduces things to just two dimensions: it consists of a single layer of graphite just one atom thick.
Nature, in general, abhors low-dimensional structures. To make them, thermal vibrations must be suppressed in one direction, or the layer will crumple ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.