2DLM Research Center Focuses on ‘Beyond Graphene’

2DLM Research Center Focuses on ‘Beyond Graphene’
Joshua Robinson recalls the day in 2006 when he learned of a material that is, for all practical purposes, two-dimensional.
At the time, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. His advisor, Eric Snow, was raving about graphene, a newly isolated form of carbon. A cousin of the widely known buckminsterfullerene (or “buckyballs”) and carbon nanotubes, graphene was a flat sheet only one carbon atom thick. The atoms were linked together in a six-sided, chicken-wire pattern, forming a lattice with astonishing properties. It was flexible, transparent, and stronger than steel. It conducted electricity better than copper and heat better than anything. In short, carbon in this form didn't behave like carbon anymore. It acted like an entirely new material.