Graphene, The World's Thinnest Material



Graphene is a new material made of carbon sheets only one atom thick:

"It is the thinnest known material in the universe, and the strongest ever measured," Andre Geim , a physicist at the University of Manchester, England , wrote in the June 19 issue of the journal Science.

"A few grams could cover a football field," said Rod Ruoff , a graphene researcher at the University of Texas, Austin , in an e-mail. A gram is about 1/30th of an ounce.

Like diamond, graphene is pure carbon. It forms a six-sided mesh of atoms that, through an electron microscope, looks like a honeycomb or piece of chicken wire. Despite its strength, it's as flexible as plastic wrap and can be bent, folded or rolled up like a scroll.


It has applications including solar cells, computer chips, and whale tanks onboard stolen Klingon birds-of-prey.

Link via Geekologie

"In their book and PBS television series The Ring of Truth, Philip and Phylis Morrison asked, "How close to atomic size can we perceive with our unaided senses?" Their imaginative response was to place a quarter teaspoon of olive oil on the surface of a pond. As it spread, the film of oil could easily be seen on the otherwise rippled water. At its limit, it covered an appreciable area, some 2,000 square feet. A simple calculation shows that its thickness -- rather, thinness -- is a mere five-millionth (0.0000002) of an inch. That is, the diameter of a single molecule of oil."

But that was a liquid, so maybe they were cheating.

http://www.northcoastjournal.com/issues/2009/06/11/our-amazing-eyes/
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Make it into a rope and you can climb a invisible rope. In the process removing half your hand.

Imagine making a stiff version of this. You would have the ultimate knife.
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Graphene is indeed a breakthrough in the field of Engineering materials. Because of the mecnaical properties and the ability to be utilized in the space application.My concern is the cost of the material and the ability of the material to withstand corrosive enviroment as well as the availability of the material.
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