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Graphene researchers scoop Physics Nobel

Two physicists from the University of Manchester are to share the Nobel Prize for their work on wonder-material graphene.Dr Andrei Geim and Dr Konstantin Novoselov scooped the prize -€“ thought to be worth close to a £1m -€“ for "groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene".
Written by Lucy Sherriff, Contributor

Two physicists from the University of Manchester are to share the Nobel Prize for their work on wonder-material graphene.

Dr Andrei Geim and Dr Konstantin Novoselov scooped the prize -€“ thought to be worth close to a £1m -€“ for "groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene". The researchers were the first to deliberately peel off a single layer of carbon atoms from graphite, famously using regular sticky tape to do so.

From the Nobel Prize announcement: As a material [graphene] is completely new – not only the thinnest ever but also the strongest. As a conductor of electricity it performs as well as copper. As a conductor of heat it outperforms all other known materials. It is almost completely transparent, yet so dense that not even helium, the smallest gas atom, can pass through it. Carbon, the basis of all known life on earth, has surprised us once again.

With a list of properties like that, it is no wonder that graphene was quickly recognised as having enormous potential. Once Geim and Novoselov showed that the material could be stable in such thin layers, an enormous research effort has begun to understand it more completely, and produce it in useful volumes.

You can listen to interviews with both Geim and Novoselov conducted immediately after they were told their work was being honoured, and you can read the full scientific background to the award here (pdf).

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