Hello and welcome to the first lecture in this course about the science and tech

nology of Graphene.
Carbon, the 6th element in the periodic table, is one of the most fascinating el
ements in the world. It is the basis of life.
There are two kinds of bulk carbon crystals: diamond and graphite.
We all know that diamond is very precious whereas graphite is abundant. Diamond
is electrically insulating while graphite can be used to make electrodes. Do you
know why they are so different although they are both made of carbon? The answe
rs lie in their atomic structures.
In diamond, each carbon atom is surrounded by 4 other carbon atoms, forming a re
gular tetrahedron. Periodical repetition of the tetrahedrons in 3D space forms t
he diamond crystal lattice.
Graphite, on the other hand, has a layered structure. In each layer, the carbon
atoms are arranged in hexagons. The plane of the layers is called the basal plan
e, in which each carbon atom is surrounded by 3 other carbon atoms.
In each layer the carbon bonds are extremely strong, even stronger than in diamo
nds. However, between layers the bonds, which are known as van der Waals bonds,
are weak. This makes graphite easy to flake off and appear soft .
Because of this property, graphite can be used to fabricate pencils.
Humans discovered graphite at least 6000 years ago and it is estimated that the
total graphite reserve of the world is around 100 million tons. Although graphit
e is very common and not very interesting in itself, things happen when you scal
e down.
In the imagination of scientists, one layer of carbon atoms in natural graphite,
now known as graphene, has been thought to have amazing properties.
For example, the in-plane mechanical strength should be even better than diamond
and electrons are expected to move very fast in graphene due to reduced scatter
ing effect.
However, to produce this single layer of atoms on an insulator so that its elect
rical properties can be measured is extremely difficult.
Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, researchers at the University of Manchester
, were among those scientists who were looking hard for methods to isolate graph
ene.
They were driven by the idea to observe the electric field effect in metals, whi
ch meant they wanted to change the conductivity by applying an electric field to
adjust the electron density.
As we know, our modern electronic circuits are based on the field effect in semi
conductors. They wanted to observe similar phenomena in metals. However, it is d
ifficult because the density of electrons in metals is much larger than in semic
onductors.
Imagine when you drink, then the water in your bottle becomes less; but if you t
ake the same amount of water from a lake you will never notice the change in the
water level, simply because there is too much water in the lake.
Therefore, one has to reduce the thickness of the metal to reduce the amount of
electrons. But ordinary metals will mechanically break before they are atomicall
y thin. So, Geim and Novoselov thought of graphene which is a semimetal .
They tried several ways to reduce the thickness of graphite, such as mechanical
polishing, but could only reach a thickness of about 10 micrometers.
Then, one Friday evening in 2004, these scientists decided to use scotch tape to
produce a few layers of graphene. When they had the material they immediately f
abricated some devices and for the first time observed the electric field effect
in it.
One year later the similar effect was observed in monolayer graphene. A few year
s later (in 2010) they were awarded the Nobel Physics prize.