Graphene

According to Scifinder, there have been about 120 papers published on graphene between Jan 1, 2008 and March 11, 2008. More than half of them are theoretical papers, with enticing titles like "graphene nanoribbons with chemically modified edges" that don't show you any ways of making graphene nanoribbons with chemically modified edges. Instead, they do some high-brow calculations on what the (electrical, optical, conducting, etc.) properties would look like if some poor schmuck actually made them. This is quite a downer when you're looking to read about the latest in graphene synthesis; a more appropriate title would be "some silly calculations on graphene nanoribbons with theoretically modified edges, but with no chemical modification even attempted."

These reviews/summaries will mostly be on new methods of graphene synthesis and characterization, with some applications work as well. It would be great if someone boiled down all those theoretical papers into a few easy to use principles, but that someone sure isn't me. If you'd like to blog some theoretical, pchem, or physics papers, you're welcome to do so here.