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Chemistry: The trials of new carbon

Nature volume 469, pages 14–16 (2011)Cite this article

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Researchers have spent 25 years exploring the remarkable properties of fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene. But commercializing them is neither quick nor easy.

In fairy tales, third place is often the best: it's usually the third casket that contains the treasure, and the third child who finds fame and fortune. And so it may be for graphene, the third and most recently discovered form of 'new carbon'. The football-shaped fullerenes1, discovered in 1985, and the hollow cylindrical carbon nanotubes2, first characterized in 1991, have so far had a limited impact on industry. But now graphene, a one-atom-thick flat sheet of carbon, seems to be surrounded by favourable omens — not the least of which is the speed with which groundbreaking experiments on its properties were rewarded with the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.

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Authors
  1. Richard Van Noorden
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Selling graphene by the ton

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2010 Nobel Prize in Physics

Andre Geim’s research group

Vorbeck Materials

Angstron Materials

XG Sciences

SungKyunKwan University’s graphene laboratory

Nanocomp Technologies

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Van Noorden, R. Chemistry: The trials of new carbon. Nature 469, 14–16 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/469014a

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