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This tutorial shows how to make model of a sheet of graphene. Graphene is a form of graphite, forming a sheet one carbon atom thick. It has properties of high strength and and high electrical conductivity. Now that engineers can work on an atomic scale, materials like graphene will be used in more and more applications.

The model is made using Array modifiers and it is possible to quickly make a very large sheet of graphene. Large models with a high number of faces, can cause a computer to slow down or even crash. The model is designed to have a low polygon count which means a low number of faces.

Each carbon atom forms a bond with three others. The resultant shape is a grid of hexagons. The angles between the ‘sticks’ are 120 degrees.
If the sticks are 1 unit long the x axis distance between atoms is given by a right angled triangle with 30 and 60 degree angles and a hypotenuse of 1
The x axis distance is the sin(60) = cos(30) = sqr(¾) = 0.866025404
If the stick is two units long then 2 x 0.8660254 = 1.73205
If there are two blocks in the array then the offset needs to be doubled
2 x 1.73205 = 3.46410

The steps are –
Press X to delete the cube
Add, Mesh, Cylinder
In the Tool Shelf, set Vertices to 4 and the Cap Fill Type to Triangle Fan
Change the View from Perspective to Orthographic and to the Front view
Press S (scale) hold down shift and press Z press .1 press enter
Go into Edit Mode, with all vertices selected press G (grab), Z, -1, enter
Go into Object Mode, duplicate (shift D, enter), press R (rotate), 120, enter
Duplicate (shift D, enter), press R (rotate), 120, enter
You should now have three cylinders forming a Y shape
Hold down shift and select all three click Join
Go into Edit mode, Remove Doubles and back to Object Mode
Name the object ‘sticks’
Object menu, Apply, Scale

Click Modifiers button, click Add Modifier button, click Array
Untick Relative Offset, tick Constant Offset
Set X offset to 1.73205
Set Z offset to 3
tick Merge

Click Add Modifier button, click Array
Untick Relative Offset, tick Constant Offset
Set X offset to 3.4641
tick Merge

Click Add Modifier button, click Array
Untick Relative Offset, tick Constant Offset
Set Z offset to 6
tick Merge

Add, Mesh, Sphere
Segments 6, Rings 6, Size .5
Duplicate (shift D, enter)
Set the location of the duplicate X 1.73205 Z 3
With the duplicate selected hold down shift and select the original sphere, click Join
With the spheres selected, hold down shift and select the sticks
To copy the modifiers to the spheres, in the Object menu, Make Link…, Modifier

Select the spheres
Click the Material Button, click the New button
Call the material carbon
Set the Diffuse colour, Red, Green and Blue values to 0.02

All files can be downloaded from my website –
http://blender.freemovies.co.uk

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