It’s all graphenes nowadays
Science Times is covering the latest trend in carbon arrangements, graphene. Basically, the stuff is a single-atom-thick lattice of carbon molecules, arranged like a honeycomb. Or to use a pasta metaphor, if buckyballs were ravioli and nanotubes were penne, graphene is the pasta used to make lasagna.
It also may be the first supermaterial you can make with the contents of your Hello Kitty stationery kit, because scientists are churning the thing out with pencil graphite and scotch tape. From the article:
They placed a graphite flake on a piece of adhesive tape, folding the tape over and pulling it apart, cleaving the flake in two. Folding and unfolding repeatedly, the graphite became thinner and thinner. Then they stuck the tape to a silicon wafer and rubbed it. Some graphite flakes stuck to the wafer, and those flakes were occasionally one atom thick.
Reading the preprint, Dr. Kim abandoned his nanopencil. “We rushed to the stationery store and bought Scotch tape,” Dr. Kim said.
Carbon arranged in this hexagonal lattice has some cool electronic properties. Electrons can flow through it with very little resistance, almost as though they were photons. But unlike nanotubes, graphene can be manipulated with standard etching techniques. No wonder Intel is funding further study.
More on the phenomenon at PhysWeb.
