Related topics: graphene

Exceptionally strong and lightweight new metal created

A team led by researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has created a super-strong yet light structural metal with extremely high specific strength and modulus, or stiffness-to-weight ...

Mysteries behind interstellar buckyballs finally answered

Scientists have long been puzzled by the existence of so-called "buckyballs"—complex carbon molecules with a soccer-ball-like structure—throughout interstellar space. Now, a team of researchers from the University of ...

Engineers develop recipe to dramatically strengthen body armor

According to ancient lore, Genghis Khan instructed his horsemen to wear silk vests underneath their armor to better protect themselves against an onslaught of arrows during battle. Since the time of Khan, body armor has significantly ...

New materials bring quantum computing closer to reality

For 60 years computers have become smaller, faster and cheaper. But engineers are approaching the limits of how small they can make silicon transistors and how quickly they can push electricity through devices to create digital ...

Carbon-rich exoplanets may be made of diamonds

As missions like NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, TESS and Kepler continue to provide insights into the properties of exoplanets (planets around other stars), scientists are increasingly able to piece together what these planets ...

IBM Scientists Demonstrate World's Fastest Graphene Transistor

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a just-published paper in the magazine Science, IBM researchers demonstrated a radio-frequency graphene transistor with the highest cut-off frequency achieved so far for any graphene device - 100 billion ...

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Silicon carbide

Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum, is a compound of silicon and carbon with a chemical formula SiC. It occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite. Silicon carbide powder has been mass-produced since 1893 for use as an abrasive. Grains of silicon carbide can be bonded together by sintering to form very hard ceramics which are widely used in applications requiring high endurance, such as car brakes and ceramic plates in bulletproof vests. Electronic applications of silicon carbide as light emitting diode and detector in early radios have been demonstrated around 1907, and nowadays SiC is widely used in high-temperature semiconductor electronics. Large single crystals of silicon carbide can be grown by the Lely method; they can be cut into gems known as "synthetic moissanite". Silicon carbide with high surface area can be produced from SiO2 contained in plant material.

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