Graphene Monoxide Semiconductors
And, like silicon, it's semiconducting, so that electrical current can be controlled.
"Now all three characteristics of electrical conductivity - conducting, insulating and semiconducting - are found in the carbon family, offering needed compatibility for use in future electronics," says the team.
On April 11 we reported on a Japanese breakthrough in monolayer graphene likely to lead to the next generation semiconductors. Now scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have announced the accidental discovery of graphene monoxide (GMO,) with qualities that convert graphene to act as a semiconductor. The researchers were conducting research into the behaviour of a hybrid nanomaterial consisting of carbon nanotubes and tin oxide nanoparticles when they ran into graphene monoxide by accident. The research was originally published last November in ACS Nano, but didn’t spark much excitement until this month.
As stated above, graphene now has “all three characteristics of electrical conductivity - conducting, insulating and semiconducting.” The world suddenly sat up and noticed, and with two big advances in getting to the next big thing in electronics, the geek world has been full of articles all week. Replacing silicon semiconductors with GMO ones may still be a few years off, but in the world of electronics, scientists are now looking on it as inevitable and about to explore just exactly how to put that development to best use.
Faster, lighter, longer ranged electric vehicles will be one improvement, with much better electrical management of the power source. But it’s in consumer electrics, most think the biggest change will come, with today’s smartphones looking like two tin cans and some string. Next decade’s phones and gadgets will probably become mobile supercomputers. Will a dinosaur like me be able to keep up?
Below just a sample of this week’s global articles. Quelle: http://www.graphiteblog.com/2012/04/...e-monoxide-semiconductors.html |
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