New twist on graphene gets materials scientists hot under the collar

After scientists have gone to such lengths to produce individual layers of atom-thick graphene it might seem odd that stacking them up again is one of the most exciting areas in the field right now. However, some of the most remarkable recent results in graphene research have come from joining two single layers of graphene together at a precisely controlled ‘magic’ angle. Exactly what’s going on is still something researchers are grappling with, but the ability to turn an exceptional conductor such as graphene into an insulator and then all the way to a superconductor has got materials scientists fired up.