Carbon Competition for Silicon? Double Honour for Creators of Graphene

Two Nobel laureates involved in the creation of graphene, a sheet of carbon just one atom thick, have received knighthoods in the British New Year Honours. Graphene is a flat layer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional honeycomb arrangement. Because it is so thin, it is also practically transparent. As a conductor of electricity, it performs as well as copper; and as a conductor of heat, it outperforms all other known materials.

BBC Science and the Environment (31 December 2011):

Knighthoods for Nobel-winning graphene pioneers

Two Nobel laureates involved in the creation of graphene, a sheet of carbon just one atom thick, have received knighthoods in the British New Year Honours.

Profs Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, from the University of Manchester, won the physics Nobel Prize in 2010 for their pioneering research.

Recipients from technology and science sectors make up 3% of this year’s list.

A knighthood has also been given to Prof Robert Watson, chief scientific adviser to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

‘Groundbreaking experiments’

Profs Geim and Novoselov, both originally from Russia, first worked together in the Netherlands before moving to the UK.

Graphene

Graphene is a form of carbon that exists as a sheet, one atom thick

Atoms are arranged into a two-dimensional honeycomb structure

Identification of graphene announced in October 2004

About 100 times stronger than steel and conducts electricity better than copper

About 1% of graphene mixed into plastics could turn them into electrical conductors

Analogous to millions of unrolled nanotubes stuck together

How sticky tape trick led to Nobel Prize

They were based at the University of Manchester when they published their seminal research paper on graphene in October 2004.

It was their work on the world’s thinnest material that was recognised by the Nobel committee in 2010 for “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”.

Graphene is a form of carbon. It is a flat layer of carbon atoms tightly packed into a two-dimensional honeycomb arrangement.

Because it is so thin, it is also practically transparent. As a conductor of electricity, it performs as well as copper; and as a conductor of heat, it outperforms all other known materials.

The unusual electronic, mechanical and chemical properties of graphene at the molecular scale promise ultra-fast transistors for electronics.

Some scientists have predicted that graphene could one day replace silicon – which is the current material of choice for transistors.

It could also yield incredibly strong, flexible and stable materials and find applications in transparent touch screens or solar cells.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk