http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Graphane is the material of choice for physicists on the cutting edge of materials science, and Rice University researchers are right there with the pack - and perhaps a little ahead. http://phys.org/news194009204.html Nanotechnology Tue, 25 May 2010 12:26:57 EST news194009204 (PhysOrg.com) -- The energy bands of complex particles known as plasmarons have been seen for the first time by scientists working with graphene at the Advanced Light Source. Their discovery may hasten the day when these crystalline sheets of carbon just one atom thick can be used to build ultrafast computers and other electronic, photonic, and plasmonic devices on the nanoscale. http://phys.org/news193591122.html Nanotechnology Thu, 20 May 2010 16:19:10 EST news193591122 (PhysOrg.com) -- "One of the hopes people have for graphene is in electronic devices. It is seen as a possible replacement for silicon, due to its unique properties," Herb Fertig tells PhysOrg.com. Graphene conducts well, and it is easy to cool, making it ideal for use in electronic devices continually shrinking in size. However, scientists have yet to understand some of the properties of graphene, including how to control the flow of electrons. "In silicon," Fertig continues, "there is an energy gap that can be exploited to manipulate the flow of electrons. Graphene is a good conductor, but it is less clear how to control the electrons." http://phys.org/news193389403.html Nanotechnology Tue, 18 May 2010 09:10:03 EST news193389403 (PhysOrg.com) -- Graphene and DNA can combine to create a stable and accurate biosensor, reports a study published in the nanotechnology journal Small. The tiny biosensor might eventually help doctors and researchers better understand and diagnose disease. http://phys.org/news193054776.html Nanotechnology Fri, 14 May 2010 11:20:02 EST news193054776 (PhysOrg.com) -- For years, scientists and researchers have been looking into the properties of carbon nanotubes and graphene for use in nanoelectronics. "There is no real mass application of devices based on graphene and carbon nanotubes," Zhenxing Wang tells PhysOrg.com. "This is really an opportunity for them to show their capabilities." http://phys.org/news192786026.html Nanotechnology Tue, 11 May 2010 09:20:01 EST news192786026 Professor Alexander Balandin and a team of UC Riverside researchers, including Chun Ning Lau, an associate professor of physics, have taken another step toward new technology that could keep laptops and other electronic devices from overheating. http://phys.org/news192715479.html Nanotechnology Mon, 10 May 2010 13:40:22 EST news192715479 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated that atomic scale moiré patterns, an interference pattern that appears when two or more grids are overlaid slightly askew, can be used to measure how sheets of graphene are stacked and reveal areas of strain. http://phys.org/news191615682.html Nanotechnology Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:10:01 EST news191615682 (PhysOrg.com) -- Three new studies from researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute illustrate why graphene should be the nanomaterial of choice to strengthen composite materials used in everything from wind turbines to aircraft wings. http://phys.org/news191522014.html Nanotechnology Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:33:59 EST news191522014 (PhysOrg.com) -- Can graphene -- a newly discovered form of pure carbon that may one day replace the silicon in computers, televisions, mobile phones and other common electronic devices -- be made to bend, twist and roll? http://phys.org/news191054841.html Nanotechnology Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:00:02 EST news191054841 At present, graphene probably is the most investigated new material system worldwide. Due to its astonishing mechanical, chemical and electronic properties, it promises manifold future applications - for example in microelectronics. The electrons in graphene are particularly movable and could, therefore, replace silicon which is used today as the basic material of fast computer chips. http://phys.org/news190893404.html Nanotechnology Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:20:02 EST news190893404 (PhysOrg.com) -- Berkeley Lab scientists have created "molecular paper," the largest two-dimensional polymer crystal self-assembled in water to date. This entirely new sheet material is made of peptoids, engineered polymers that can flex and fold like proteins while maintaining the robustness of synthetic materials. http://phys.org/news190319825.html Nanotechnology Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:37:19 EST news190319825 To make large sheets of carbon available for light collection, Indiana University Bloomington chemists have devised an unusual solution -- attach what amounts to a 3-D bramble patch to each side of the carbon sheet. Using that method, the scientists say they were able to dissolve sheets containing as many as 168 carbon atoms, a first. http://phys.org/news190029313.html Nanotechnology Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:57:13 EST news190029313 Graphene, the two-dimensional crystalline form of carbon, is a potential superstar for the electronics industry. With freakishly mobile electrons that can blaze through the material at nearly the speed of light - 100 times faster than electrons can move through silicon - graphene could be used to make superfast transistors or computer memory chips. Graphene's unique "chicken wire" atomic structure exhibits incredible flexibility and mechanical strength, as well as unusual optical properties that could open a number of promising doors in both the electronics and the photonics industries. However, among the hurdles preventing graphene from joining the pantheon of star high-tech materials, perhaps none looms larger than just learning to make the stuff in high quality and usable quantities. http://phys.org/news189954890.html Nanotechnology Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:15:48 EST news189954890 The single-atom thick material graphene maintains its high thermal conductivity when supported by a substrate, a critical step to advancing the material from a laboratory phenomenon to a useful component in a range of nano-electronic devices, researchers report in the April 9 issue of the journal Science. http://phys.org/news189953748.html Nanotechnology Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:00:04 EST news189953748 (PhysOrg.com) -- By controlling the layered growth of graphene - a relatively "new" form of carbon that's just a single atom thick - researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory have uncovered intriguing details about the material's superior electrical and optical properties. Their findings could help position graphene as the next-generation material for future computers, digital displays, and electronic sensors. http://phys.org/news189413854.html Nanotechnology Fri, 02 Apr 2010 07:58:04 EST news189413854 (PhysOrg.com) -- When most of us hear the word 'defect', we think of a problem that has to be solved. But a team of researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) created a new defect that just might be a solution to a growing challenge in the development of future electronic devices. http://phys.org/news189245010.html Nanotechnology Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:04:16 EST news189245010 Graphene -- carbon formed into sheets a single atom thick -- now appears to be a promising base material for capturing hydrogen, according to recent research* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Pennsylvania. The findings suggest stacks of graphene layers could potentially store hydrogen safely for use in fuel cells and other applications. http://phys.org/news188056335.html Nanotechnology Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:52:36 EST news188056335 Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) at Argonne National Laboratory users from Politecnico di Milano in Italy, working collaboratively with researchers in the Electronic & Magnetic Materials & Devices Group, have demonstrated the reversible and local modification of the electronic properties of graphene by hydrogen passivation and subsequent electron-stimulated hydrogen desorption with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip. http://phys.org/news187549005.html Nanotechnology Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:20:01 EST news187549005 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. http://phys.org/news187448260.html Nanotechnology Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:10:01 EST news187448260 Researchers at Stanford University have successfully developed brand new concept of organic lighting-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with a few nanometer of graphene as transparent conductor. This paved the way for inexpensive mass production of OLEDs on large-area low-cost flexible plastic substrate, which could be rolled up like wallpaper and virtually applied to anywhere you want. http://phys.org/news187430392.html Nanotechnology Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:00:46 EST news187430392 (PhysOrg.com) -- Ever since it's relatively recent discovery, graphene has generated a great deal of interest. Graphene is extracted from graphite in many cases, and consists of a sheet of carbon atoms bound together in a hexagonal lattice. Because graphene is only one atomic layer thick, it is of interest for nanostructures. Additionally, its electrical and optical properties make it a possible alternative to materials currently used in electronics and in sensors. There is even speculation about the usefulness of graphene for energy applications. Graphene sheets can be layered or patterned to get different properties and perform different functions. http://phys.org/news186755474.html Nanotechnology Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:32:09 EST news186755474 Rice University researchers have found a way to stitch graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) into a two-dimensional quilt that offers new paths of exploration for materials scientists. http://phys.org/news186682880.html Nanotechnology Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:21:34 EST news186682880 (PhysOrg.com) -- Graphene, a one-atom-thick layer of a carbon lattice with a honeycomb structure, has great potential for use in radios, computers, phones and other electronic devices. But applications have been stymied because the semi-metallic graphene, which has a zero band gap, does not function effectively as a semiconductor to amplify or switch electronic signals. http://phys.org/news186397884.html Nanotechnology Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:11:48 EST news186397884 Using large-scale supercomputer calculations, researchers have analyzed how the placement of metallic contacts on graphene changes the electron transport properties of the material as a factor of junction length, width and orientation. The work is believed to be the first quantitative study of electron transport through metal-graphene junctions to examine earlier models in significant detail. http://phys.org/news186226770.html Nanotechnology Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:40:02 EST news186226770 (PhysOrg.com) -- "Graphene has been the subject of intense focus and research for a few years now," Philip Kim tells PhysOrg.com. "There are researchers that feel that it is possible that graphene could replace silicon as a semiconductor in electronics." http://phys.org/news185701353.html Nanotechnology Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:30:01 EST news185701353 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers in the Electro-Optics Center (EOC) Materials Division at Penn State have produced 100 mm diameter graphene wafers, a key milestone in the development of graphene for next generation high-power, high-frequency electronic devices. http://phys.org/news183395407.html Nanotechnology Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:11:02 EST news183395407 (PhysOrg.com) -- A collaborative research project has brought the world a step closer to producing a new material on which future nanotechnology could be based. Researchers across Europe, including the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL), have demonstrated how an incredible material, graphene, could hold the key to the future of high-speed electronics, such as micro-chips and touchscreen technology. http://phys.org/news183135827.html Nanotechnology Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:10:03 EST news183135827 The research that brought to light the fossils of Ardipithecus ramidus, a hominid species that lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia, has topped Science's list of this year's most significant scientific breakthroughs. The monumental find predates "Lucy," -- previously the most ancient partial skeleton of a hominid on record -- by more than one million years, and it inches researchers ever-closer to the last common ancestor shared by humans and chimpanzees. http://phys.org/news180282874.html Other Sciences Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:35:25 EST news180282874 A single-atom-thick sheet of carbon, like those seen in pencil marks -- offers great potential for new types of nanoscale devices, if a good way can be found to mold the material into desired shapes. http://phys.org/news180256587.html Nanotechnology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:18:00 EST news180256587 Two-dimensional carbon layers, so-called graphenes, are regarded as a possible substitute for silicon in the semiconductor industry. The electronic properties of these layers can be varied by "building in" specific arrays of holes in their structure. Physicists at Empa, Switzerland, together with chemists from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, have, for the first time, succeeded in synthesizing a graphene-like porous polymer with atomic accuracy. http://phys.org/news177871833.html Nanotechnology Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:53:34 EST news177871833