Graphene at Uppsala University
Graphene is a two-dimensional carbon material, in essence a gigantic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, the existence of which was experimentally verified in 2004. The subsequent explosion of scientific activity is unprecedented since the discovery of the high temperature superconductors in the late eighties; during the period between 2005 and 2007 more than 20 publications addressing graphene appeared in Science or in journals by Nature Publishing Group, and sevreal more in other high-prestige journals. The excitement around this material is in part due to the predicted quantum electrodynamical properties, where the electrons can be described as so-called mass-less Dirac Fermions. However, the potential for applications within electronics and photonics are maybe more important.
Research on graphene requires a wide range of expertise including chemical synthesis, electron microscopy, surface physics and theoretical modelling. Since 2007, researchers from Physics, Chemistry and Engineering science at Uppsala university are active in the graphene field.
