Controversy of Graphene Discovery: A Scientometrics Perspective
1. Chen yue1, 2. Xin lili1, 3. Teng li1,2
1. WISE Laboratory of Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning,Dalian, 116024
2. Management Colleges of Aircraft Industry of Zhengzhou, Henan, Zhengzhou 450006
Abstract: The paper tried to deal with the debate on graphene discovery from constructing key literature chain which reflected the process of graphene discovery by scientometrics method. The results have shown that two works made by Geim and Novoselov, one was discovery of graphene and the other was find of Two-dimensional gas of massless Dirac fermions in graphene, both had high cited frequence and network betweenness centrality. On the other hand, only one paper written by Heer in 2006, which made important work for nature of graphene, was situated on the chain. Two works of Kim, one was about single-walled carbon nanotubes and the other was about quantum Hall effect and Berry's phase in graphene, were lain on the chain indicating Kim played important role before and after discovery graphene, especially after discovery graphene. Based on these results, the paper pointed out that there were enough reasons for Geim and Novoselov to win Nobel Prize and Kim also met the requirement for Nobel Prize.
石墨烯(Graphene)是一种由碳原子以sp2杂化轨道组成六角型呈蜂巢晶格的平面薄膜,只有一个碳原子厚度的二维材料。石墨烯在被发现前一直被科学家认为是假设性的结构,无法在自然条件下单独稳定存在。2004年,英国曼彻斯特大学物理学家安德鲁•海姆(Andre Geim)与康斯坦丁•诺沃肖洛夫(Konstantin Novoselov),成功地在实验中从石墨中分离出石墨烯,从而证实它可以单独存在,并具有独特的物理化学性质。两人也因“在二维石墨烯材料的开创性实验”为由,共同获得2010年诺贝尔物理学奖。获奖后,英国《自然(Nature)》杂志网站的一篇文章《Nobel prize committee under fire》及新闻《Nobel document triggers debate》,披露了美国乔治亚理工学院物理系的赫尔(Walt de Heer)关于石墨烯向诺贝尔奖委员会提出的质疑(见Letter from Walt de Heer, http://www.gatech.edu/graphene/)。面对质疑,海姆似少点谦谦君子的风度,进行了嘲讽式的回击,但同时认为另一位学者,哥伦比亚大学的凯姆(Kim P),应该共享今年的诺贝尔物理学奖。
其次,还需要检索与科学家所发表的经典文献相关的文献。这些文献同样反映了石墨烯的相关研究。确定这些相关文献,可以使用文献耦合[7, 8]的方法。所谓文献耦合,是指文献集合中两篇文献至少拥有一篇相同的参考文献。相同的参考文献越多,文献间的耦合相关度就越大。海姆与诺沃肖洛夫二人有关制备出石墨烯的文献最早发表在《科学》(《Science》,2004年第306期)杂志上,题目为《单原子厚度碳薄膜的电场效应》(《Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films》)。这篇文献共有参考文献16篇,文献标题见表1。在2004年以前与其有耦合关系的文献则表征了石墨烯发现前相关的研究。
表1 《单原子厚度碳薄膜的电场效应》中的参考文献
序号
标 题
1
Organic thin-film transistors: A review of recent advances
2
Carbon nanotubes – the route toward applications
3
Possibility of a metallic field-effect transistor
4
Hall constant in quantum-sized semimetal Bi films: Electric field effect influence
5
Intercalation compounds of graphite
6
Electronic transport-properties of graphite, carbons, and related materials
7
Carbon nanostructures
8
Graphitic cones and the nucleation of curved carbon surfaces
9
Fabrication of mesoscopic devices from graphite microdisks
10
Cleavage of graphite to graphene
11
Experimental evidence of a single nano-graphene
12
Novel electronic wave interference patterns in nanographene sheets
续前表
13
STM investigation of single layer graphite structures produced on pt(111) by hydrocarbon decomposition
14
Nanotube molecular wires as chemical sensors
15
Sensitivity of single multiwalled carbon nanotubes to the environment
16
Molecular electronics: From devices and interconnect to circuits and architecture
Colloidal suspensions of highly reduced graphene oxide in a wide variety of organic solvents(在各类有机溶剂中高还原石墨烯氧化物的胶态悬浮)
这些文献构成了石墨烯发现前后的知识链条。在这个链条中,凯姆是两篇关键节点文献的通讯作者:1)Atomic structure and electronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes(单壁碳纳米管的原子结构与电子特征);2)Experimental observation of the quantum Hall effect and Berry's phase in graphene(对石墨烯中量子霍尔效应与贝里相位的实验观察)。这两篇文献在石墨烯发现前后的链条中都具有较高的中介中心度值,其中后一篇有关石墨烯重要性质的文献(量子霍尔效应与无质量狄拉克费米子)的被引频次达到2859次。前一篇发表于1998年,后一篇发表于2005年,表明凯姆在石墨烯发现前后都起到了重要的作用。尤其是2005年的文献,直接引发研究石墨烯的链式效应与热潮,并使人们看到石墨烯在电子工业领域的广泛应用及其前景。另一方面,希尔只有一篇文献在链条中处于关键位置:发表于2006年的Electronic Confinement and Coherence in Patterned Epitaxial Graphene(石墨烯磊晶中的电子监禁与相干性,希尔是通讯作者)。这表明希尔在石墨烯了现后做出了比较重要的贡献,但在石墨烯发现前所做的研究相对普通,并不象他在质疑信中所言对石墨烯的发现起到关键作用。虽然希尔较早在基底上生长出石墨烯,但是他并没有进一步对石墨烯的各项性质展开相应的研究,说明其并未意识到石墨烯发现所具有的重要意义。石墨烯发现前后的文献链条,既表明海姆等人获奖的合理性,也佐证了海姆关于凯姆应当共享诺贝尔奖的观点。
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