By EurekAlert
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Scientists have leaped over a major hurdle in efforts to begin
commercial production of a form of carbon that could rival silicon
in its potential for revolutionizing electronics devices ranging
from supercomputers to cell phones. Called graphene, the material
consists of a layer of graphite 50,000 times thinner than a human
hair with unique electronic properties. Their study appears in ACS'
Nano Letters, a monthly journal.
Victor Aristov and colleagues indicate that graphene has the
potential to replace silicon in high-speed computer processors and
other devices. Standing in the way, however, are today's
cumbersome, expensive production methods, which result in
poor-quality graphene and are not practical for industrial scale
applications.
Aristov and colleagues report that they have developed "a very
simple procedure for making graphene on the cheap." They describe
growing high-quality graphene on the surface of commercially
available silicon carbide wafers to produce material with excellent
electronic properties. It "represents a huge step toward
technological application of this material as the synthesis is
compatible with industrial mass production," their report
notes.
SOURCE