Video & Narration - "Graphene" - The world's next most Wonder Material!

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon in the form of a
two-dimensional, atomic-scale, hexagonal lattice in which one atom forms each
vertex. It is the basic structural element of other allotropes, including
graphite, charcoal, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. It can also be considered
as an indefinitely large aromatic molecule, the limiting case of the family of
flat polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Graphene has many extraordinary properties. It is about 100
times stronger than steel by weight, conducts heat and electricity with great
efficiency and is nearly transparent. Researchers have identified the bipolar
transistor effect, ballistic transport of charges and large quantum
oscillations in the material.

Scientists have theorized about graphene for decades. It is
quite likely that graphene was unwittingly produced in small quantities for
centuries through the use of pencils and other similar applications of
graphite, but it was first measurably produced and isolated in the lab in 2003.
 Research was informed by existing
theoretical descriptions of its composition, structure and properties.  High-quality graphene proved to be
surprisingly easy to isolate, making more research possible.

Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of
Manchester won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 "for groundbreaking
experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.

The global market for graphene is reported to have reached
$9 million by 2014 with most sales in the semiconductor, electronics, battery
energy and composites industries. (Info from Wikipedia)