Illustration of the Scotch tape method for isolating graphene. A piece of graphite is placed on adhesive tape, which is then folded over and peeled apart repeatedly to cleave the graphite into thinner ...

An curved arrow pointing right. Narrator: Duct tape can hold just about anything together. We use it for all sorts of repairs and even as a decorative addition to various arts and crafts.

Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi, a physicist who studies 2D materials at the University of California, Irvine, likens the accomplishment to the creation of graphene, an atomically thin layer of carbon.