Mechanical engineering professor uses coal to create graphene

Since its initial discovery in 2004 by two professors at the University of Manchester, graphene has made a big splash in the scientific community. Its discoverers won a Nobel Prize in 2010 for developing the idea—then the race was on to find ways to produce and apply it. Roop Mahajan, the Lewis A. Hester Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, has contributed a significant step forward in that race.