Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗚𝗲𝗶𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘃

Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗚𝗲𝗶𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘃

When graphene comes up in conversation, the story usually starts in 2004, when Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov first isolated it in the lab for the first time, experimentally demonstrated its outstanding electronic properties, broke long-standing paradigms, and triggered a massive technological hype.

What is rarely mentioned is that graphene’s story is more than 𝟭𝟲𝟬 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗹𝗱. And even less known is that a single layer of graphite 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘀 𝟭𝟵𝟲𝟮.

To begin with, nearly two decades before the 2004 experiment, the term “𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘦” itself had already been coined. In 1986, Hans-Peter Boehm defined graphene as “𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘣𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦.” At that time, the material was already well known and extensively studied, particularly by theoretical physicists.

Work in this area started as early as 1947, when Phillip R. Wallace calculated the electronic structure of a graphite monolayer, introducing its band model and providing the first theoretical description of its linear dispersion, the Dirac cones that later became iconic.

On the chemistry side, however, the foundations go back even further. It was 1859 when Benjamin Brodie oxidized graphite for the first time, laying out the groundwork for what we now call graphene oxide. This chemistry was refined over decades by scientists such as Staudenmaier in 1898 and Hummers & Offeman in 1958.

Graphite oxidation eventually culminated in a 1962 study by Boehm himself, the same scientist who later coined the term graphene, in which single layers of oxidized graphitic structures were potentially isolated. Boehm inferred that the “extremely thin lamellae” he observed had thicknesses as low as 3 Å, consistent with a single atomic layer (the figure is from his original work). A definitive claim of the graphite monolayer isolation by Boehm was prevented only because the characterization techniques available at the time were unfortunately simply not advanced enough to prove it conclusively.

Looking back, the work of Boehm, Wallace, and many other brilliant scientists prepared the ground for what happened in 2004. That long history is what makes graphene, and, more broadly, 2D materials happen and become such a 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 today for a 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀, especially in areas where conventional materials are reaching their limits.

source : Josué Cremonezzi