graphene

British

/ ˈɡræfiːn /

noun

a nanomaterial consisting of one-atom-thick sheets of carbon atoms, with the atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice structure

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of graphene

C20: from _graph ( _ite ) + _-ene

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

While graphene is known for exceptional electrical conductivity, it does not function well as a photocatalyst.

From Science Daily • Mar. 16, 2026

The good news for the Johns Hopkins team: The metal-organic frameworks they’ve pioneered are potentially so precise that future microchips made of graphene or other exotic materials might be patterned using them.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

Dean's team took a different approach by working with graphene, a naturally occurring material made of a single layer of carbon atoms.

From Science Daily • Feb. 5, 2026

By combining advanced electron microscopy with neural networks, the team recorded a silver iodide crystal as it melted while being protected by layers of graphene.

From Science Daily • Jan. 26, 2026

These tools enabled them to examine the atomic structure of the defective graphene, confirm the presence of the engineered defects and determine how they influenced the material's chemical and electronic behavior.

From Science Daily • Dec. 4, 2025

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023