Stunning images reveal how a laser was used to convert carbon into graphene and form works of art in the process.
Chemists from Rice University have teamed up with a Houston-based artist to create the striking images.
Because graphene conducts electricity, the technique could be eventually used to create interactive electronic artworks, the team claim.
The artworks are a collaboration between chemist James Tour and his colleagues at Rice University, in Texas, and Houston-based artist James Cohen.
Instead of ink, each work of art is drawn in graphene, which is created by using the energy of a laser to convert carbon into microscopic flakes of graphene.
Carbon can be found in common polymers and many other materials.
Graphene is a form of carbon in which the atoms are lain out in hexagonal patterned sheets – one of the images created in the project reveals its molecular structure.
Professor Tour developed the laser-induced-graphene method back in 2014, and is now applying the technique to produce the team’s unique works of art.