What is graphene?

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. A stack of graphene sheets forms the crystal graphite. It was known for years as a purely theoretical concept until 2004 when U.K. scientists first isolated stable graphene layers (K.S.Novoselov et al. Science, 2004).

Graphene has since been found to have unique mechanical, electrical and optical properties governed by unusual and fascinating physics (A.H.Castro Neto et al. Rev. Mod. Phys., 2008). Unlike other materials, charge carriers in graphene are 'massless' and behave in many ways like photons, the particles of light. They also have a specific quantum mechanical property, chirality, which profoundly influences many physical phenomena. This makes graphene a test bed for examining core quantum mechanics principles, and the basis for development of fundamentally new functional devices, structurally smaller than those relying on conventional metals and semiconductors.

The discovery of graphene has launched a new era in nanotechnology. Its unique properties will lead to a vast range of practical applications, from all-carbon-based nano-electronics that can rival or even replace silicon technology, to medicine and healthcare.

What does it look like?

You can see images of graphene in our gallery.