Two Dimensional Revolution
Researchers are discovering more and more substances that are only a single atomic layer thick - and often have unusual properties. You can also put these layers on top of each other. This creates ultra-thin structures with exciting new properties.
The excitement among scientists was great when in 2004 the physicists André K. Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester succeeded for the first time in isolating individual graphite layers with an adhesive foil. That was the birth of graphene, the first two-dimensional material. Although theoretical physicists had long speculated that such structures might exist, nobody would have thought that they could be made so easily. The unusual properties of graphene made researchers enthusiastic: flexible, light and at the same time amazingly resistant, the material also turned out to be an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. Within the next few years, the number of publications on this topic exploded.
In fact, graphene's unique characteristics are largely due to its two-dimensional nature. And as scientists were quick to discover, there are a whole host of other two-dimensional materials that are proving at least as interesting…
