Nobel Prize laureates Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, of the University of Manchester (UK), have been knighted for their pioneering working synthesizing the miraculous nano-material graphene, the University of Manchester proudly announced Tuesday.
Graphene, an allotrope of carbon, was first synthesized in 2004 by Geim and Novoselov by using Scotch tape to peel ultra-thin (one atom) layers off a block of graphite (such as that used in pencil lead). The duo won the Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 for their work. Graphene is now being used to create high-efficiency electric car batteries and the world’s smallest transistor, among numerous other potential uses.
