Is graphene really a miracle material? The folks at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences seemed to think so! In 2010, they awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester in the UK “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.”

In its press release, the committee stated: “Graphene is a thin flake of carbon, just one atom thick.…As a material it 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.”

Kudos to Geim and Novoselov for receiving this prestigious award and the glowing description of the material from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. But it should also be noted that beyond the great work at the University of Manchester, there is significant other work going on to leverage the value of this miracle material for new and innovative uses. We spoke with Dr. John Lettow, President & CEO of Vorbeck Materials Corp., whose company is also conducting groundbreaking graphene work.