The material, so thin it effectively has just two dimensions, was first isolated by two Russian-born scientists, AndreGeim and Konstantin Novoselov, at the University of Manchester, work that earned them a Nobel Prize and knighthoods.
AndreGeim and Konstantin Novoselov, of the University of Manchester, made graphene in 2004 using what may be the simplest experiment ever to win a Nobel prize: they peeled it off the surface of a piece of graphite using sticky tape.