Previously, descriptions such as
graphite layers, carbon layers or carbon sheets have been used for the term graphene. Because
graphite designates that modification of the
chemical element carbon, in which planar sheets of carbon atoms, each atom bound to three neighbours in a honeycomb-like structure, are stacked in a three-dimensional regular order, it is not correct to use for a single layer a term which includes the term
graphite, which would imply a three-dimensional structure. The term graphene should be used only when the reactions, structural relations or other properties of individual layers are discussed.