Graphene Researchers Geim and Novoselov Win Nobel Prize in Physics
The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to two research pioneers working on graphene, a material that could have myriad high-tech applications, which they first produced by decidedly low-tech means. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both of the University of Manchester in England, won the prize for their work producing and characterizing the material, which is a one-atom-thick layer of carbon resembling a nanoscale chicken wire. Graphene is transparent, strong, and a good conductor of electricity, making it an attractive material for a number of electronics applications.Novoselov was a postdoctoral fellow working in Geim's lab in 2004 when the researchers discovered that they could form such thin slabs of carbon by repeatedly cleaving graphite--essentially pencil lead--with Scotch tape. Their 2004 Science paper describing the material and its the electrical properties has already been cited more than 3,000 times, according to Thomson Web of Science. ...