Graphene is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix-ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer carbon foils in 1962. Before its discovery, graphene was considered as an academic material that could not exist in reality due to thermodynamic instabilities of two-dimensional structures on a nanometer scale. However, Geim and Novoselov successful isolation of graphene by the microcleaving of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite in 2004, for which they later shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010.
Graphene can be considered as the basic carbon material and it can be rolled up into a one-dimensional carbon nanotube, wrapped into a zero-dimensional fullerene, and stacked into three-dimensional graphite. Since its discovery, graphene has attracted tremendous interest in fundamental research and industry. Graphene has an exceptional band structure exhibiting crossing points between the valence and the conduction band at the six corners of the Brillouin zone. Around these so-called Dirac points, the energy dispersion is linear giving rise to unique optical and electronic properties. The electrons behave like relativistic massless particles and can be described by a Dirac-like equation.
Graphene’s special properties
• Conductive: Electrons are the particles that make up electricity. So when graphene allows electrons to move quickly, it is allowing electricity to move quickly. It is known to move electrons 200 times faster than silicon because they travel with such little interruption. It is also an excellent heat conductor. Graphene is conductive independent of temperature and works normally at room temperature.
• Strong: As mentioned earlier, it would take an elephant with excellent balance to break through a sheet of graphene. It is very strong due to its unbroken pattern and the strong bonds between the carbon atoms. Even when patches of graphene are stitched together, it remains the strongest material out there.
• Flexible: Those strong bonds between graphene’s carbon atoms are also very flexible. They can be twisted, pulled and curved to a certain extent without breaking, which means graphene is bendable and stretchable.
• Transparent: Graphene absorbs 2.3 percent of the visible light that hits it, which means you can see through it without having to deal with any glare.
• Large surface area: Theoretical calculations predict a large surface area of single-layer graphene close to 2600 m2 g−2.
Due to its special properties, graphene is considered as a very promising future material for many fields. Some of the biggest emerging applications are solar cells, transistors, transparent screens. Graphene could also have applications for sensors, DNA sequencing, electrode materials, material strengthening, water desalination, and beyond.
Nanjing XFNANO Materials Tech Co., Ltd (XFNANO), specializes in carbon nanomaterials R&D, production and application, especially in graphene and carbon nanotubes. Taking advantages of strong R&D capability, XFNANO Technology has successfully developed a series of carbon nanomaterials and related products, including graphene powers, CVD graphene, single/multi-wall carbon nanotubes, functionalized graphene/ carbon nanotubes et al.. So far, XFNANO can offer 1 kg high quality graphene powders per day. The graphene grown via chemical vapor deposition of this company are also with global competitiveness. The custom-made maximum sizes of graphene on copper and PET substrates are 50 cm×50 cm and 20cm×50cm respectively.
AUTHOR: Xu Jiang, Lei Liang
XFNANO Materials Tech Co.,Ltd
