Graphene is ultra-thin, uncommonly powerful, and heat and electricity conduct through it with less resistance than any substance that exists. The discovery of graphene earned the $1.4 million 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for two Russian physicists conducting analysis in England. Graphene's unique qualities have captivated scientists across the globe who are seeking quantum leaps in technology that can impact life on Earth in profound ways.
Graphene: Scotch tape found it
Graphene was discovered at Manchester University. It was found by Nobel laureates Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov. The NY Times reports that while investigating the electrical properties of graphite, they tried peeling layers of it off with Scotch tape. They ended up with an interesting form of carbon. It was a single atom thick actually. Graphene is so thin and strong, the Times said a sheet stretched over a coffee cup will support the weight of a truck bearing down on a pencil point. Graphene is able to conduct electricity and create a ton of heat which may lead it to replacing silicon in computer chips. It would also be able to transform physics, modify the way flat screen TVs are made and even become a pollution monitoring material.
Graphene could modify everyday living
CNN talked to Geim who said graphene will alter everything in existence. It will alter as much as discovering plastic changed things. The material is two dimensional with the hexagonal array of carbon atoms. These atoms are arranged very specifically. Graphene is "fundamentally different" from three dimensional graphite because it is flexible. Graphene Industries and Geim work really close together saying that scientists are able to access all dimensional materials including zero-dimensional atoms and one-dimensional nanowires because of the two dimensional materials like graphene. All the things graphene could modify can never be described, Geim told Cable News Network.
What will graphene teach us next
Graphene is a common substance across the world. Numerous laboratories are experimenting with it. Graphene reacts as though it were a magnetic field when it is stretched, PC World accounts researchers at the University of CA, Berkeley discovering. Parts of electronic devices can be built differently if this material is being added into it. Science reports that researchers in South Korea have figured out how to grow graphene in sheets big enough to make touch-screen displays twice as durable as the current technological innovation.
Citations
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/10/06/science/06nobel.html?_r=1 and hp
CNN
edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/05/sweden.nobel.physics/
PC World