Graphene Graphene Graphene is an allotrope (form) of carbon consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. It is a semimetal with small overlap between the valence and the conduction bands (zero bandgap material).<ref name="10.1002/adma.201502544 p.6519-6525"></ref> It is the basic structural element of many other allotropes of carbon, such as graphite, diamond, charcoal, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. Graphene has many uncommon properties. It is the strongest material ever tested, conducts heat and electricity efficiently, and is nearly transparent. Graphene shows a large and nonlinear diamagnetism, greater than that of graphite, and can be levitated by neodymium
Beta carbon nitride Beta carbon nitride Beta carbon nitride (β-CN) is a superhard material predicted to be harder than diamond. The material was first proposed in 1985 by Marvin Cohen and Amy Liu. Examining the nature of crystalline bonds they theorised that carbon and nitrogen atoms could form a particularly short and strong bond in a stable crystal lattice in a ratio of 1:1.3. That this material would be harder than diamond on the Mohs scale was first proposed in 1989. The material has been considered difficult to produce and could not be synthesized for many years. Recently, the production of beta carbon