Graphene is an allotrope of carbon

Carbon

Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...

, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp²-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite

Graphite

The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...

 and the suffix -ene

-ene

The suffix -ene is used in organic chemistry to form names of organic compounds where the -C=C- group has been attributed the highest priority according to the rules of organic nomenclature. Sometimes a number between hyphens is inserted before it to say that the double bond is between that atom...

 by Hanns-Peter Boehm

Hanns-Peter Boehm

Hanns-Peter Boehm is a German chemist and professor emeritus at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany. Boehm is considered a pioneer of graphene research.- Biography :...

, who described single-layer carbon foils in 1962. Graphene is most easily visualized as an atomic-scale chicken wire

Chicken wire (chemistry)

The term chicken wire in chemistry is used in different contexts. Most of them relate to the similarity of the regular hexagonal patterns found in certain chemical compounds to the mesh structure commonly seen in real chicken wire....

 made of carbon atoms and their bonds.