Researchers reveal graphene's secrets

Academics at Xi'an Jiaotong University in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, have described a new property of graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon in sheets just one atom thick that has been the subject of widespread research.

Li Suzhi, Ding Xiangdong and Sun Jun from the university worked alongside Li Ju from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Li Qunyang from Tsinghua University, Robert W. Carpick from University of Pennsylvania and Peter Gumbsch from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on a paper, entitled The Evolving Quality of Frictional Contact with Graphene, which was published in Nature magazine on Nov 24.

For the first time, their research describes a fundamental property of graphene, namely how it behaves when something slides along its surface.

Using powerful computer simulations, the team reproduced all the core phenomena related to friction on the material and proposed a new control mechanism for two-dimensional materials.

Since they were first produced in 2004, two-dimensional materials such as graphene have become the focus of much academic study due to their unique electrical, magnetic, thermal and mechanical properties.