14 DAY TRIAL // In the very near future, advanced computers and electronics will no longer contain the silicon, the chemical on which this industry was built, but rather a carbon compound called graphene. Innovations in materials science, recently made in the United States, make using the material feasible.
Investigators at the Purdue University have developed a new approach for creating single-crystal graphene arrays. The achievement will enable experts in many industries to use the new material as a replacement for silicon.
It's amazing how things got so far with graphene, experts say, considering that the material was only discovered 6 years ago, by researchers at the University of Manchester, in the United Kingdom.
The compound has a series of unique physical and chemical properties that make it extremely well-suited for a whole range of applications. Among others, it is the strongest material ever obtained.
Graphene features a hexagonal, honeycomb-like structure, and is made of a single, atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms. It can conduct electricity remarkably well, better even than established chemicals/
Engineers hope to use it to develop new generations of integrated circuits and high-speed transistors that could power up computers, while at the same time consuming only a fraction of the power existing electronics technologies need.
What experts need to obtain now are graphene-based structures similar to silicon wafers. In order for this to happen, they need to be able to manufacture single graphene crystals, and the new research is a major step in this direction.
“Graphene isn't there yet, in terms of high quality mass production like silicon, but this is a very important step in that direction,” explains the corresponding author of the study, Yong P. Chen.
He holds an appointment as the Miller Family assistant professor of nanoscience and physics at the Purdue University, in West Lafayette. The new crystals are obtained through a process called chemical vapor deposition, and are derived from single graphite seeds.
“Using these seeds, we can grow an ordered array of thousands or millions of single crystals of graphene. We hope that industry will look at these findings and consider the ordered arrays as a possible means of fabricating electronic devices,” adds Qingkai Yu.
The expert, a corresponding author of the paper, is an assistant professor at the Texas State University Ingram School of Engineering. Details of the research will be published in the June issue of esteemed journal Nature Materials.