Graphene was first isolated in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at Manchester University in the UK. They were later awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 2010 for "ground-breaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene". Their initial experiments eventually lead to material 1 atom thick.

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, a flat mono-layer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a hexagonal 2D honeycomb lattice. Carbon 2 to 10 atom layers thick is usually classified as "few-layer graphene", and up to 100 layers thick it is generally called "graphene nanoplatelets". Beyond that is graphite.

Graphene is the closest we can get to a 2D material; it has good mechanical stiffness, strength and elasticity, very high electrical and thermal conductivity, and it has good applications in electronics, protective coatings, composites and more.