An oxidized form of graphene — single-atom-thick layers of carbon — is extremely flexible, despite also being very resistant to stretching.

Cécile Zakri at the University of Bordeaux in France and her colleagues measured how much layers of graphene oxide resist bending by using X-rays to study how easily natural ripples in the sheet can be flattened. They found that graphene oxide is about 100 times easier to bend than graphene, even though both materials have a resistance to stretching along the plane of the sheet that is comparable to that of steel.

Graphene oxide's unique combination of stiffness and superflexibility makes it a suitable material for applications such as flexible but strong electronics, say the authors.

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://doi.org/bq7k (2016)