Graphene is one atom thick and stronger than steel
A single sheet of carbon atoms is the strongest material ever tested — yet it tears easily, because strength and toughness are not the same thing.
Graphene is a sheet of carbon atoms locked into a honeycomb lattice exactly one atom thick — the thinnest material there is. Despite that, it is the strongest material ever tested, roughly 200 times stronger than steel while being lighter than paper. The U.S. Department of Energy puts it vividly: a sheet so thin could, in principle, support an elephant.
It was isolated in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who peeled layers off graphite using ordinary Scotch tape — a trick that won them the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Strength isn’t the whole story, though. Berkeley Lab researchers found graphene’s toughness — its resistance to a crack spreading — is actually low, barely above plain graphite.
A flawless sheet resists enormous force, but a single defect can let it rip.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
