Diamond is one allotrope of carbon. In the diamond structure, each carbon atom is covalently bonded to four others and has a tetrahedal geometry.
New material one atom thick harder than Diamond
Some really smart people in white coats have discovered a new material that is harder than diamonds and conducts electricity 100 times better than silicon.
Sounds great right? Did I mention it is also only one atom thick?
Once you put those together you have the makings of something to set the computer and IC world on its ear.
The new material is being called graphene and is pure carbon. It is being earmarked for use in touch screens, solar cells and of course high performance computer chips.
The time when we will have graphene in our computers is still a long way off though. As it stands right now scientists have only recently figured out how to make it efficiently. Before they actually had to mount carbon atoms onto tape and then peel the take away to get the graphene layer.
Still there is hope that in the near-term hybrid graphene silicon devices will pop up and improve the current silicon only products we use.
The prinicple behind Graphene was first theorized in 1947. 2004 was the first time someone actually pulled a 2D sheet of graphene from a graphite composite. This was proven conclusively to be possible in 2005.
In 2007 the first transitor made of Graphene was produced
In 2008 a new method for creating Graphene was found.
It is the thinnest known material in the universe and the strongest ever measured, according to Andre Geim, a physicist at the University of Manchester, England., who was quoted in the journal Science. A gram is about 1/30th of an ounce.
This new material is similar to diamonds in that it is pure carbon. It forms a six-sided mesh of atoms that resembles a honeycomb when viewed through an electron microscope, says the article. Despite its strength, graphene is as flexible as plastic wrap and can be bent, folded or rolled up.
Potential graphene applications include touch screens, solar cells, energy storage devices, cellphones and eventually high-speed computer chips, according to the paper, but while graphene is seen as a possible replacement to silicon, reports say that it won't be in the near future.
Government, university laboratories and other companies are now working to solve difficult problems in making graphene and turning it into useful, commerical products.
Imagine a carbon sheet that's only one atom thick but is stronger than diamond and conducts electricity 100 times faster than the silicon in computer chips.
That's graphene, the latest wonder material coming out of science laboratories around the world.
It's creating tremendous buzz among physicists, chemists and electronic engineers.
"It is the thinnest known material in the universe, and the strongest ever measured," Andre Geim, a physicist at the University of Manchester, England, wrote in the June 19 issue of the journal Science.
"A few grams could cover a football field," said Rod Ruoff, a graphene researcher at the University of Texas, Austin, in an e-mail. A gram is about 1/30th of an ounce.
Like diamond, graphene is pure carbon. It forms a six-sided mesh of atoms that, through an electron microscope, looks like a honeycomb or piece of chicken wire. Despite its strength, it's as flexible as plastic wrap and can be bent, folded or rolled up like a scroll.
Graphite, the lead in a pencil, is made of stacks of graphene layers. Although each individual layer is tough, the bonds between them are weak, so they slip off easily and leave a dark mark when you write.
Potential graphene applications include touch screens, solar cells, energy storage devices, cell phones and, eventually, high-speed computer chips.
Replacing silicon, the basic electronic material in computer chips, however, "is a long way off . . . far beyond the horizon," said Geim, who first discovered how to produce graphene five years ago.
"In the near and medium term, it's going to be extremely difficult for graphene to displace silicon as the main material in computer electronics," said Tomas Palacios, a graphene researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Silicon is a multi-billion dollar industry that has been perfecting silicon processing for 40 years."
Government and university laboratories, long-established companies such as IBM, and small start-ups are working to solve difficult problems in making graphene and turning it into useful products.
Ruoff founded a company in Austin called Graphene Energy, which is seeking ways to store renewable energy from solar cells or the energy captured from braking in autos.
The Pentagon is also interested in this new high-tech material. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is spending $22 million on research to make computer chips and transistors out of graphene.
Graphene was the leading topic at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society — a leading organization of physicists — in Pittsburgh in April. Researchers packed 23 panel sessions on the topic. About 1,500 scientific papers on graphene were published in 2008 alone.
Until last year, the only way to make graphene was to mount flakes of graphite on sticky tape and separate a single layer by carefully peeling away the tape. They called it the "Scotch Tape technique."
Recently, however, scientists have discovered a more efficient way to produce graphene on an underlying base of copper, nickel or silicon, which subsequently is etched away.
"There has been spectacular progress in the last two or three months," Geim reported in the journal Science. "Challenges that looked so daunting just two years ago have suddenly shrunk, if not evaporated."
"I'm confident there will be many commercial applications," Ruoff said. "We will begin to see hybrid devices — mostly made from silicon, but with a critical part of the device being graphene — in niche applications."
Additional Reading :
Lonsdaleite - Harder than Diamond ?
Diamond: Molecule of the Month
Hardness:Rhenium Diboride V Diamond
Element Six's real hopes for artificial diamonds
Lab Grown Diamonds: Applications V Gems
Diamonds are a physicist's—and perhaps quantum computing's—best friend
Diamond Synthetics " Near- Forevermark "
Laboratory Grown Diamonds Take Shape
CIBJO, IDMA, WFDB Issue Joint Statement on Lab-grown Diamonds
GIA Examines the Newest Generation of Apollo CVD Synthetic Diamonds
" DiamondSure " & " DiamondView "
Historical Feature : Forevermark
CIBJO : De Beers Seduces it's Goomah
CYRUS JILLA NAMED CEO OF ELEMENT SIX: IS GEM "SYNTHETICS OF CHOICE" COMING FASTER THAN EXPECTED?
CARBON
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Kiss Her With A Diamond
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