January 28th, 2013

Europe Bets €1BN And 10 Years On “Wonder Material” Graphene As A Silicon Replacement

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A graphene research initiative has been selected by the European Commission as one of two winners of its Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) research excellence award competition — to develop the potential of graphene as a silicon replacement for future high tech kit. Each FET project will receive €1 billion to fund 10 years of research “at the crossroads of science and technology”. → Read More

January 24th, 2013

Cambridge University To Open £25M Graphene R&D Centre With Backing from Nokia, Plastic Logic & Others

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Material scientists and nanotechnologists get very excited about the potential of graphene — a one-atom-thick sheet of bonded carbon atoms that’s exceptionally strong and flexible — but they are not the only ones to see potential in it. Nokia is one of more than 20 industry partners who have pledged £13m worth of support for a new graphene R&D hub to be established at Cambridge University. → Read More

February 2nd, 2011

Put Graphene On Your Windshield, Say Goodbye To Your Windshield Wipers

Graphene, “one of the hottest new materials in the field of nanotechnology,” has just made your car’s windshield wipers obsolete. Researchers at Vanderbilt University have devised a way to re-jigger graphene so that it sticks to smooth surfaces like ship hulls and windshields. Given that graphene can effortlessly repel water, you’ve just created a simple method to make rainproof your… → Read More

October 13th, 2009

Graphene makes a gra-fine photodetector

Graphene, as everyone knows, “is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice.” (Seriously, I didn’t just check Wikipedia for that.) Scientists have been using the material for lots of different applications for some time now. Recent work at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center has focused on using graphene as a photodetector, and it… → Read More

September 10th, 2009

Scientists make flat ice

Ice doesn’t get me very excited. I rarely get ice in my beverages because it’s merely “delayed water”. But some scientists have been studying ice, and have created a completely flat sheet of ice only two molecules thick. Apparently ice normally forms in a “puckered” layered formation. Thrilling! All you need is some graphene, platinum, a vacuum, and the ability to lower temperatures to 125 kelvin… → Read More

April 18th, 2008

Atom-sized transistor is world's smallest

Made from graphene, scientists in the UK have created the world’s smallest transistor. Size? Oh, say, about the size of an atom. The transistor, which could totally change the way electronics are made, is just one atom thick and 10 atoms wide. Again, it’s made from graphene, which, apparently, is a significantly better conductor of electricity than silicon. “We believe we can… → Read More