Graphene research: Numerous products, no acute dangers

Think big. Despite its research topic, this could well be the motto of the Graphene Flagship, which was launched in 2013: With an overall budget of one billion Euros, it was Europe's largest research initiative to date, alongside ...

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.

Measurements have shown that graphene has a breaking strength 200 times greater than steel, making it the strongest material ever tested.

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