OSTIblog Articles in the Konstantin Novoselov Topic

Graphene’s Humble Creation and Promising Future

Sometimes the ordinary things we use every day can lead to extraordinary discoveries.  This was truly the case when physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov used the humble adhesive tape to extract single layers of graphene from graphite. 

Although graphene had been theorized years before, it was thought to be impossible to isolate such thin crystalline materials in a laboratory.  Geim and Novoselov not only exfoliated their thin sheets of graphene, they transferred them to a silicon substrate, the standard working material in the semiconductor industry and did electrical characterization on the graphite layers.  Their discovery was published in 2004 and in 2010 they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for successfully producing, isolating, identifying and characterizing graphene.  Their adhesive tape, dispenser, chuck of graphite and a graphene transistor (shown above) were donated to the Nobel Museum in Stockholm. 

Graphene is a single layer of carbon packed in a hexagonal (honeycomb) lattice and the first in a new class of two-dimensional crystalline materials with remarkable mechanical and electrical properties.  Graphene is the strongest known substance, 200 times stronger than steel, so dense that the smallest gas atom helium cannot pass through it.  It is an unmatched thermal and electrical conductor, stable, stretchable, transparent and impermeable.

Graphene holds much promise.  Since the 2003 discovery, graphene research has increased substantially in many areas, including the development of solar cells, composite materials, lithium-ion batteries, biological and chemical sensors, transistors, inkjet printing of next generation electronics, telecommunications, novel coatings and lubricants.  Department of Energy...

Related Topics: adhesive tape, Andre Geim, graphene, In the OSTI Collections, Konstantin Novoselov