The planar edges and reactive edges are very bad

Feb 6, 2015 08:17 GMT  ·  By

Only recently was a technique developed that finally allowed materials engineers some control over the edges of graphene strips, and practical applications are a long way off, which begs the question: will Graphene ever actually make it out of the lab?

It is the opinion of researchers at University of Texas’ Cockrell School of Engineering that we would be better off with an alternative.

They even have that alternative more or less ready. Called Silicene, the substance has already been used in the creation of a new generation of transistors.

They are still just a prototype, a proof of concept if anything. However, that is still one step further than anything Graphene researchers have managed so far.

Why Graphene is considered to be important

The material is supposed to be usable in, well, pretty much anything really, from powerful armor and vehicle chassis and hulls, to electronic equipment, including semiconductors. That is to say, CPUs, GPUs, memory chips, solid state storage devices, etc.

Graphene is a planar sheet of carbon atoms arrayed in hexagonal molecules. Whether it is metallic (current passes freely) or semiconducting (some control over the current is available) is determined by the edges.

That is where the main problem lies: controlling how the edges form is iffy at best, and even when the edges on one side turn out well, the others might not.

Some researchers from the William Marsh Rice University in Houston recently introduced a method to basically tailor the Graphene edges the way they want, but there are no takers yet, and practical applications are still years away.

Pouncing on the chance, a group of researchers at the University of Texas’ Cockrell School of Engineering are pushing forward their alternative: Silicene.

Silicene transistors already available

We've known of Silicene since 2010 and it has a close chemical affinity to silicon, the material currently used in transistors.

Silicene can be manufactured at low temperature and otherwise has the same traits and potential as Graphene.

There is just one problem: Silicene degrades under oxygen. Very fast. Meaning that a coating will have to be developed for it, otherwise it won't be used in mainstream or low-end applications at all.

A sheet of graphene
A sheet of graphene

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Silicene may or may not oust Graphene
A sheet of graphene
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