Nanomaterials are substances tiny substances. They are approximately 100,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair!

Fullerenes are an allotrope (different physical form of an element) of carbon where carbon atoms are bonded into a roughly spherical group involving hexagons and pentagons. The best way to imagine this is like a soccer ball! Fullerenes can be used in photovoltaic cells (which make up solar panels).

Graphene is a single layer of graphite (check out our carbon lattice page for a refresher on graphite). It is a strong, conductive material which can be used in computer chips (because it is conductive and very small) and desalination plants (water can pass through it, but small impurities cannot).