Graphene- a Rising Star

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Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Electrochemistry Volume 2012, Article ID 237689, 12 pages doi:10.1155/2012/237689 Review Article Graphene: A Rising Star on the Horizon of Materials Science Ujjal Kumar Sur Department of Chemistry, Behala College, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700060, India Correspondence should be addressed to Ujjal Kumar Sur, uksur99@yahoo.co.in Received 22 June 2012; Accepted 23 August 2012 Academic Editor: Balaprasad Ankamwar Copyright © 2012 Ujjal Kumar Sur. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Graphene, a one-atom thick planar sheet of sp2 bonded carbon atoms packed in a honeycomb lattice, is considered to be the mother of all graphitic materials like fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphite. Graphene has created tremendous interest to both physicists and chemists due to its various fascinating properties, both observed and predicted with possible potential applications in nanoelectronics, supercapacitors, solar cells, batteries, flexible displays, hydrogen storage, and sensors. In this paper, a brief overview on various aspects of graphene such as synthesis, functionalization, self-assembly, and some of its amazing properties along with its various applications ranging from sensors to energy storage devices had been illustrated. 1. Introduction Since the discovery of fullerene (C60 ) in 1985 by Kroto and his coworkers [1], several novel carbon nanomaterials have been isolated. In 1991, carbon nanotube (CNT) was discovered by Iijima [2], while graphene, a two-dimensional form of graphite, was isolated in 2004 by Novoselov et al. of Manchester University, UK [3]. Graphene has become a new supermaterial due to its unique physical
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