The Rise of Graphene

The Rise of Graphene

Geim, Andre, and Konstantin Novoselov*
Nature Materials 6, no. 3 (2007): 183-191.
https://doi.org/10.1142/9789814287005_0002

* Nobel Prize Laureates in Physics

“Graphene is the name given to a flat monolayer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb lattice, and is a basic building block for graphitic materials of all other dimensionalities (Figure 1). It can be wrapped up into 0D fullerenes, rolled into 1D nanotubes or stacked into 3D graphite. Theoretically, graphene (or “2D graphite”) has been studied for sixty years and widely used for describing properties of various carbon-based materials. Forty years later, it was realized that graphene also provides an excellent condensed-matter analogue of (2+1)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics, which propelled graphene into a thriving theoretical toy model. On the other hand, although known as integral part of 3D materials, graphene was presumed not to exist in the free state, being described as an “academic” material and believed to be unstable with respect to the formation of curved structures such as soot, fullerenes and nanotubes. All of a sudden, the vintage model turned into reality, when free-standing graphene was unexpectedly found three years ago and, especially, when the follow-up experiments confirmed that its charge carriers were indeed massless Dirac fermions. So, the graphene “gold rush” has begun.”

— Andre Geim & Konstantin Novoselov