Graphene: The quest for supercarbon

Mr G gazes out from a recruitment poster hanging in an engineering building in Cambridge, UK. His cartoon cape billows out behind him, his sketched-in muscles ripple beneath his costume, his chest is emblazoned with a 'G' inside a hexagon — and his forefinger points straight at the viewer. “I want you for the Graphene Flagship!” declares the cartoon crusader, championing a material as super as he is.

Graphene is the thinnest substance ever made: a single sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal honeycomb pattern. It is as stiff as diamond and hundreds of times stronger than steel — yet at the same time is extremely flexible, even stretchable. It conducts electricity faster at room temperature than any other known material, and it can convert light of any wavelength into a current. In the decade since graphene was first isolated, researchers have proposed dozens of potential applications, from faster computer chips and flexible touchscreens to hyper-efficient solar cells and desalination membranes.