The Next Step in Nanotechnology: Nanotubes Are Out, Graphene Is In

For the past decade, nanotubes were considered to be the best candidate for replacing silicon in the competition for miniaturization of the computer industry.

Unfortunately, they still had disadvantages, being difficult to arrange precisely, and hard to wire to the outside world without losing much of their vaunted electrical conductivity.

It seems that a new player has just entered the arena. Name - Graphene -, category - single planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms arranged like a honeycomb -, fighting style - any, since you can make them with duct tape or Scotch (not the booze).

It too, faces many obstacles on the road to becoming the next big thing in computer applications, but its combination of exotic physics and high-tech potential is attracting scores of researchers that are ready to bet serious money on it.

The competitors have all the more reasons to be worried.

Once silicon circuits slim down to 10 nanometers, which the semiconductor industry predicts will occur after 2020, they will start leaking electricity profusely.

Nanotubes grow in dense thickets that are hard to separate and place with precision. To create circuits from them, researchers must attach relatively bulky wires that spoil much of their conductivity.

Now, the crowd is anxious to see if graphene will be able to solve the problem of circuits being stamped from its large wafers, much as they already do with silicon, and that of the small pieces actually working.

The word is spreading, like writing with your pencil, whose point across paper leaves a graphite mark, the 3-D counterpart of the 2-D graphene.

The newcomer seems to have already found a big sponsor, since Georgia Institute of Technology received a grant from chipmaker Intel to cook up graphene from a mix of silicon and carbon.

Stay tuned for more action from the miniature world of nanotech!