(Phys.org) —In 2010, the discoverers of graphene—a revolutionary material made of a carbon "monolayer" just one atom thick—snagged the Nobel Prize in physics. An extremely efficient conductor of heat and electricity, graphene could be manufactured with nothing more extraordinary than scotch tape and a pencil. But because it was such a great conductor of electricity, the one-atom-thick material couldn't be used for semiconductors: It lacked a "band gap" that could be used to control the flow of electrons.
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