Graphene- The Wonder Material.
Graphene was first demonstrated by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, two physicists from the University of Manchester, in 2004 for which they had won Noble Price in 2010. Scientists argued that strictly 2 dimensional crystalline materials were thermodynamically unstable and could not exist. Graphene is a single layer (monolayer) of carbon atoms, closely bound in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. It is an allotrope of carbon in the form of a plane of sp2-bonded atoms (though carbon has a valency of four, due to similar reasons as that of graphite as it is derived from it) with a molecular bond length of 0.142 nanometres. Strength of Graphene Layers of graphene stacked on top of each other form graphite, with an interplanar spacing of 0.335 nanometres, these layers are held by Van der Waals force. The separate layers of graphene in graphite are held together by Van der Waals forces, which can be overcome during exfoliation of graphene from graphite. There are about 30,00,000 layers of g...