Like diamond or graphite, graphene is a structural modification (an allotrope) of carbon, that has many special properties that make it a very useful material with great potential for application in technology. In essence, graphene is an isolated atomic plane of graphite, which is very light (1-square-meter sheet weighing only 0.77 milligrams) and at the same time very strong (graphene has a breaking strength over 100 times greater than a hypothetical steel film of the same thickness). The electrical properties of this novel material are being extensively researched for the wide range of potential graphene applications. In fact, graphene may even provide a basis for the new definition of the SI unit of electric current, the ampere. Read more »
