|GRAPHENE AND ITS HYDROGENATED COUNTERPART, GRAPHANE| I want to
conduct...I want to insulate... practically all the elements of
the periodic table find use in the modern electronic industry.
Non-metals like sulphur hold on tightly to their electrons and
so are good insulators; metals like copper do just the opposite
and are good conductors. Elements like silicon come in between
and make themselves useful as semiconductors. The exception is
graphite, a form of carbon. Although a non-metal, it conducts
electricity. With slight variations in its form, it can
oscillate between being a conductor and an insulator. In 2004, a
team of researchers derived graphene from graphite and like
graphite this too came out as an excellent conductor. When the
same teammodified graphene to increase its applications, it got
graphane. The new material ceased to be a conductor because it
turned out to have insulating properties.This ability of
graphite to exhibit split personalities has manifold
applications, said the researchers. G