Skip to comments.
Scientists slice graphite into atom-thick sheets
The Register (U.K.) ^
| October 21, 2004
| Lucy Sherriff
Posted on 10/22/2004 12:09:03 AM PDT by Stoat
Scientists slice graphite into atom-thick sheets
Published Thursday 21st October 2004 23:29 GMT
An international team of scientists has made a new material just one atom thick, by extracting a single plane of carbon from a graphite crystal. Known as graphene, the new fabric effectively exists in just two dimensions, and could pave the way for computers built from single molecules. In the latest edition of Science, published tomorrow, the scientists from Manchester University and Chernogolovka, Russia, explain that the atomic sheet is a fullerene molecule. Fullerenes are a class of carbon molecules discovered in the last twenty years. The first, the famous football-shaped Carbon-60 molecule, was named for architect Buckminster Fuller, because of its resemblance to his geodesic dome structures.
The sheet of atoms is highly flexible, stable and strong and demonstrates remarkable conductivity. Manchester Universitys Professor Andre Geim says that qualities like this have been found so far only in nanotubes. "As carbon nanotubes are basically made from rolled-up narrow stripes of graphene, any of the thousands of applications currently considered for nanotubes renowned for their unique properties can also apply to graphene itself," he said. Although the samples they have studied are mere microns across, the researchers found that the electrons will travel across the material without scattering over submicron distances ideal for building very fast switching transistors. The researchers have even managed to demonstrate an ambipolar field effect transistor (a transistor commonly used to amplify a weak signal, such as a wireless signal) that works under ambient conditions. Geim adds that there is some way to go still before the material can legitimately be considered the next big thing. Currently, the samples are tens of microns across, but for real engineering, the scientist says wafers will need to be a few inches in size. However, Dr. Novoselov, Geims counterpart at Chernogolovka, is optimistic: "Only ten years ago carbon nanotubes were less than a micron long. Now, scientists can make nanotubes several centimetres long, and similar progress can reasonably be expected for carbon nanofabric too."
|
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: algoreinventedthis; graphene; graphite; science; technology
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-26 next last
1
posted on
10/22/2004 12:09:05 AM PDT
by
Stoat
To: Stoat
No matter what the article says, Al Gore invented this.
2
posted on
10/22/2004 12:13:01 AM PDT
by
Hank Rearden
(Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
To: Hank Rearden
I did that in my kitchen last week, without bragging about it.
3
posted on
10/22/2004 12:16:47 AM PDT
by
BCrago66
To: Stoat
To: BCrago66
before or after you built the atom smasher from washing machine parts?
5
posted on
10/22/2004 12:21:54 AM PDT
by
GeronL
(FREE KERRY'S SCARY bumper sticker .......... http://www.kerrysscary.com/bumper_sticker.php)
To: Stoat
So, back-engineered alien UFO technology surfaces again!
6
posted on
10/22/2004 12:35:32 AM PDT
by
shibumi
(HELP! HELP! We've lost our accordian and can't shoot the ducks!)
To: GeronL
Or the Toynbee Convector?
Seriously, if they can figure out how to bond this (...is it warpable, can it be woven instead of just bonding to a substrate?), then perhaps we can start to look seriously at the Space Elevator. Now starting THAT project would be a worthy goal for W in his second term.
7
posted on
10/22/2004 12:36:55 AM PDT
by
Gondring
(They can have my Bill of Rights when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!)
To: Stoat
and could pave the way for computers built from single molecules. That would sure make the keyboard impossible to use.
8
posted on
10/22/2004 12:40:58 AM PDT
by
clee1
(Islam is a deadly plague; liberalism is the AIDS virus that prevents us from defending ourselves.)
To: Stoat
Imagine trying to handle one of those.
9
posted on
10/22/2004 12:43:30 AM PDT
by
The Red Zone
(The reason they're trying to starve her isn't because she's dying, but because she isn't. [Supercat])
To: Gondring
I doubt the planning of that would even start in 4 years. Heck, they haven't even studied the idea enough and won't over the next 4.
10
posted on
10/22/2004 1:13:06 AM PDT
by
GeronL
(FREE KERRY'S SCARY bumper sticker .......... http://www.kerrysscary.com/bumper_sticker.php)
To: clee1
You just have to develop liiiiitle tiiiiiny fingertips.
11
posted on
10/22/2004 1:21:05 AM PDT
by
broadsword
(Weren't there a couple of giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan? What happened to them?)
To: Gondring
...then perhaps we can start to look seriously at the Space Elevator. Now starting THAT project would be a worthy goal for W in his second term.
That would just be another high tech thingy for the produce-nothing, worth-nothing, Muslim terrorists to blow up.
12
posted on
10/22/2004 1:22:44 AM PDT
by
broadsword
(Weren't there a couple of giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan? What happened to them?)
To: Stoat
Re: ambipolar field effect transistor qualities
S. J. Tans, R. M. Verschueren, and C. Dekker, Room temperature tran-sistor based on a single carbon nanotube, Nature, vol. 393, pp. 4952,1998.
13
posted on
10/22/2004 1:44:48 AM PDT
by
endthematrix
(Bad news is good news for the Kerry campaign!)
To: broadsword
I don't think the response to terrorism is to stop progress. Perhaps such a target would be exactly what they'd want to hit, but we Americans don't stop living just because they'd want to kill us, do we?
14
posted on
10/22/2004 3:10:39 AM PDT
by
Gondring
(They can have my Bill of Rights when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!)
To: GeronL
Actually, a rather reasonable draft plan has been compiled, and though this plan wouldn't be the final form, a real effort toward an elevator could
initiated at any time. (See, for example, the
July 2004 cover article of that leftie science rag
Discover.) Of course, the actual elevator wouldn't be completed in 4 years.
15
posted on
10/22/2004 3:25:35 AM PDT
by
Gondring
(They can have my Bill of Rights when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!)
To: broadsword
(Weren't there a couple of giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan? What happened to them?) Some folks think there were three.
16
posted on
10/22/2004 3:36:48 AM PDT
by
Gondring
(They can have my Bill of Rights when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!)
To: Stoat
I could do the same thing with a number 3 pencil...
To: Stoat
Boy, that could cause a really nasty "paper cut".
To: Gondring
I don't think the response to terrorism is to stop progress.
Of course not.
Perhaps such a target would be exactly what they'd want to hit, but we Americans don't stop living just because they'd want to kill us, do we?
No, my friend. The idea is to kill the seventh-century savages BEFORE they kill us.
BTW: I would love to see that space elevator before I die. I have always thought it an intriguing idea.
19
posted on
10/22/2004 4:16:04 AM PDT
by
broadsword
(Weren't there a couple of giant Buddhist statues in Afghanistan? What happened to them?)
To: Stoat; All
Sounds like we're approaching ET cleverness in such constructions.
I think one or more of the filmy, foily artifacts from more than a crash or there was analyzed to find an odd mix of elements bonded together in a mystifying layering wherein each element was only an atom or so thick in it's layer.
20
posted on
10/22/2004 5:17:08 AM PDT
by
Quix
(PRAYERS 4 PRES, FAMILY, ADVISORS N OUR REPUBLIC IN OCT MAY BE VITALLY CRUCIAL)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-26 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson