Cheaper Commercial Production of Graphene Possible Thanks To Scientific Leap by German Scientists

Scientists have leaped over a major hurdle in efforts to begin commercial production of a form of carbon that could rival silicon in its potential for revolutionizing electronics devices ranging from supercomputers to cell phones. Called graphene, the material consists of a layer of graphite 50,000 times thinner than a human hair with unique electronic properties. Their study appears in ACS' Nano Letters, a monthly journal.

Victor Aristov and colleagues indicate that graphene has the potential to replace silicon in high-speed computer processors and other devices. Standing in the way, however, are today's cumbersome, expensive production methods, which result in poor-quality graphene and are not practical for industrial scale applications.

Scientists have developed a simple, inexpensive manufacturing method that could allow mass production of graphene (illustrated above) for electronics applications.

 

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Aristov and colleagues report that they have developed "a very simple procedure for making graphene on the cheap." They describe growing high-quality graphene on the surface of commercially available silicon carbide wafers to produce material with excellent electronic properties. It "represents a huge step toward technological application of this material as the  

Contacts and sources:
Victor Aristov, Ph.D.
Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research
Dresden, Germany
Phone: 49351 4659548
Email: V.Aristov@ifw-dresden.de

"Graphene Synthesis on Cubic SiC/Si Wafers. Perspectives for Mass Production of Graphene-Based Electronic Devices"
http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/nl904115h

 Michael Bernstein
American Chemical Society