(discovered in 1985 hollow cages of carbon atoms, including the Years scientists have discovered various other carbon allotropes withĮven more interesting properties.
If that's what you learned in school, you probablyįinished your studies quite a while ago, because in the last few Pencils mix graphite with other materials to make darker orįainter lines) diamond is transparent and the hardest Properties: graphite is black, dull, and relatively soft (soft and hard Is what gives the two allotropes their completely different The atoms inside the two materials are arranged in different ways, and this The amazing thing is that both these radically different materialsĪre made of identical carbon atoms. (the super-hard, sparkly crystals in jewelry). Namely graphite (the soft, black stuff in pencil "leads") and diamond In two basic but startlingly different forms (or allotropes), In school you probably learned that carbon comes
Only one atom high, you'll be doing well to spot them! There are tiny specks of graphene in any pencil mark like this, but since they're Shave off a super-thin layer of graphite, just one atom high, what Strongly bonded layers of atoms that are very weakly held togetherĭrag your pencil along the page, the thin layers of graphite shear offĪnd stay behind, making the black line you can see. Photo: A pencil like this is a wooden shaftįilled with a stick of soft graphite, a type of carbon made from What is this strange and remarkable new stuff? Revolutionize everything from computing to car tires and solar cells to smoke detectors. And if we're to believe the hype, it promises to Strongest, thinnest, best heat- and electricity- conducting materialĮver discovered. Superlatives for this wondrous stuff: it's just about the lightest, Science journals have been running out of Recently discovered material made from honeycomb sheets of carbon If the 20th century was the age of plastics, theĢ1st century seems set to become the age of graphene-a