Ancient graphene formed 3 billion years before humans discovered it

Naturally formed graphene has been discovered for the first time, in 3.2-billion-year old rocks underneath a South African gold mine. The find could lead to more energy-efficient ways to produce the material, which has a number of useful electronic properties.

Graphene, a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon, was first discovered in 2004 by scientists using sticky tape to take layers off pencil graphite, but scaling up its production has proved difficult. Current industrial methods to make large quantities of graphene require temperatures exceeding 1000°C (1800°F).…