Graphene: A Versatile Advanced Material

Book excerpt: Most of us have been exposed to graphene through the use of pencils since elementary school. After all, pencil leads are made out of graphite, which are graphene layers that are piled on top of each other. Graphene is an excellent material and has stimulated much research interest due to its unique structure and interesting properties. There are several unique and powerful properties exhibited by graphene that makes it suitable for various advanced applications. For example, it is the thinnest material, with a thickness of only one atomic layer. It is also very strong, flexible, has high thermal and electrical conductivity and much more. In addition, it also has special electrical conductor and insulator properties with tunable optical properties. This book covers fundamental and advanced topics related to graphene, including the introduction and history, structure and chemistry, basic properties, and the preparation methods of graphene. Furthermore, graphene nanocomposites, different characterization techniques, as well as the basic and advanced graphene applications are presented within this book in order to provide a broad reference for researchers, scientists, as well as postgraduate and undergraduate students. Additionally, this book contains a special topic related to bio-based graphene which is currently gaining a lot of attention.