[dr_who]

Graphite. Knew it. Yawn.

[Gideon7]

Graphite is a bunch of carbon flecks that slide over each other. These guys claim to be making the stuff in a single continuous sheet (one giant molecule). Carbon bonds are dang strong. Imagine a material as strong as a diamond, but made in 2 dimensions instead of 3.

If they can somehow mass-produce it and build up layers it would bloody useful in a lot of applications. Imagine armor that is light, flexible, and dang near indestructible.

[Ben Ficklin]

The "ene" suffix means that it is a Fullerene, a variation of Buckyballs. Named after Buckminister Fuller.

These are pure carbon compounds, like diamonds and graphite, discovered by Richard Smalley in the 80s. Nano Technology.