Graphene

Graphene is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. It can be viewed as an atomic-scale chicken wire made of carbon atoms and their bonds. The name comes from GRAPHITE + -ENE; graphite itself consists of many graphene sheets stacked together. The carbon-carbon bond length in graphene is approximately 0.142 nm. Graphene is the basic structural element of some carbon allotropes including graphite, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. It can also be considered as an infinitely large aromatic molecule, the limiting case of the family of flat polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons called graphenes. Graphene is also very strong. It is 200 times stronger than steel, making it the strongest material in the world. Graphene is the name given to a single layer of carbon atoms densely packed into a benzene-ring structure, and is widely used to describe properties of many carbon-based materials, including graphite, large fullerenes, nanotubes, etc. (e.g., carbon nanotubes are usually thought of as graphene sheets rolled up into nanometer-sized cylinders). Planar graphene itself has been presumed not to exist in the free state, being unstable with respect to the formation of curved structures such as soot, fullerenes, and nanotubes. Nanostripes of graphene (in the zig-zag orientation), at low temperatures, show spin-polarized edge currents which also suggests applications in the recent field of spintronics. Graphene nanoribbons (also called nano-graphene ribbons), often abbreviated GNRs, are thin strips of graphene or unrolled single-walled carbon nanotubes. The graphene ribbons were originally introduced as a theoretical model by Mitsutaka Fujita et.al. to examine the edge and nanoscale size effect in graphene. Graphene nanoribbons possess semiconductive properties and may be a technological alternative to silicon semiconductors and may be capable of sustaining microprocessor clock speeds in the vicinity of 1 THz.

Further information:

1. Novoselov K. S. et al. «Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films», Science 306, 666 (2004)
2. Bunch J. S. et. al. Electromechanical Resonators from Graphene Sheets Science 315, 490 (2007)
3. Chen Zh. et. al. Graphene Nano-Ribbon Electronics Physica E 40, 228 (2007)
4. Novoselov, K. S. et al. «Two-dimensional atomic crystals», PNAS 102, 10451 (2005)
5. Rollings E. et. al. Synthesis and characterization of atomically thin graphite films on a silicon carbide substrate J. Phys. Chem. Solids 67, 2172 (2006)
6. Hass J. et. al. Highly ordered graphene for two dimensional electronics Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 143106 (2006)
7. Novoselov K. S. et al. «Two-dimensional gas of massless Dirac fermions in graphene», Nature 438, 197 (2005)
8. Shioyama H. Cleavage of graphite to graphene J. Mat. Sci. Lett. 20, 499—500 (2001)
9. Ландау Л.Д., Лифшиц Е.М. Статистическая физика. — 2001.
10. Zhang Y. et al. Fabrication and electric-field-dependent transport measurements of mesoscopic graphite devices Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 073104 (2005)
11. Parvizi F., et. al. Graphene Synthesis via the High Pressure — High Temperature Growth Process Micro Nano Lett., 3, 29 (2008)
12. Sidorov A. N. et al.,Electrostatic deposition of graphene Nanotechnology 18, 135301 (2007)
13. J. Hass et. al. Why Multilayer Graphene on 4H-SiC(000-1) Behaves Like a Single Sheet of Graphene Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 125504 (2008).
14. S.R.C.Vivekchand; Chandra Sekhar Rout, K.S.Subrahmanyam, A.Govindaraj and C.N.R.Rao (2008). "Graphene-based electrochemical supercapacitors". J. Chem. Sci., Indian Academy of Sciences 120, January 2008: 9−13.
15. Article Graphene from Wikipedia, the Free Enciclopedia. Available under the license Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike.

Back to Russian