Graphene

[Prashant Kumar]

That's right. The only way we would be able to build such a thing, by
layering graphene sheets over graphene sheets, would just give us graphite
- the stuff in a pencil. Most of the technological and physical properties
result from the fact that graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms.

Now, given magic/aliens, we could imagine wrapping up these graphene sheets
- into carbon nanotubes - and putting them together into a pencil. But even
then, we would see changes in electronic properties. This, by the way,
is a dream
of condensed matter physics -- programmable matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_matter

P.

On Saturday, 12 January 2013, rich wrote:

> The media does seem to overblow scientific breakthroughs so-called.
>
> dumb question: are you saying scaling graphene would essentially
> change it into something that isn't graphene anymore or does not have
> the same physical properties? sorry, the only chemistry I've learned
> in the last decade is from watching Breaking Bad ;)
>
> rich
>
> On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 8:36 PM, Prashant Kumar
> <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com <javascript:;>> wrote:
> > Unfortunately the elephant-pencil thing (in SciAm, right?) thing is
> somewhat
> > specious, in that "graphene" as thick as a pencil is just graphite.
> > Alien-tech-level methods of fabricating such a thing notwithstanding,
> > scaling up the mechanical properties of graphene in such a way would
> result
> > in changes in physical structure which would nullify the technological
> > applications.
> >
> > P.
> >
> > On Friday, 11 January 2013, rich wrote:
> >>
> >> thanks man
> >>
> >> I need a science guy to help me out. I did like the elephant and
> >> pencil analogy. guess graphene replacing silicon is many years away.
> >>
> >> rich
> >>
> >> On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 9:32 PM, Prashant Kumar
> >> <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >> > For those who don't know, graphene is basically a single-atom thick
> >> > layer of
> >> > graphite with some very interesting physical properties. Basically,
> >> > under
> >> > certain conditions, you can force the charge carriers, erstwhile
> >> > electrons,
> >> > to behave as different kinds of particles, which results in a range of
> >> > physically and technologically interesting phenomena.
> >> >
> >> > I  would argue that, all things considered, graphene is not bleeding
> >> > edge;
> >> > more properly emerging. It's not a technology in the sense a layman
> >> > would
> >> > recognise: it's reasonably far away from commercial application.
> Problem
> >> > is
> >> > with fabrication of suitable samples. The guys at Manchester who won
> the
> >> > Nobel in Physics last year used what's now called the "Scotch tape"
> >> > method.
> >> > You get a sample of graphite and "exfoliate" (read stick it on and
> then
> >> > peel
> >> > it off) a layer of graphene. This is one of the most efficient methods
> >> > known. However, graphene in this state is brittle, so there's problems
> >> > scaling up.  Many of the really cool things you can do right now have
> >> > also
> >> > been demonstrated in other materials.
> >> >
> >> > Graphene electronics proper is I think maybe a decade or so away. Even
> >> > then
> >> > I think deployment of graphene will be in concert with other tech,
> most
> >> > exciting of which is perhaps "spintronics". If an electron is spinning
> >> > clockwise, it has spin down, anticlockwise, spin up. The idea is you
> run
> >> > circuits using spin information. This allows for very interesting
> >> > circuits,
> >> > where information can flow both ways along a single line. Cool think
> >> > about
> >> > graphene here is that it exhibits such effects at room temperature,
> >> > where
> >> > every other material needs superconducting (~1-2K) temperatures, which
> >> > limits commercial utility.
> >> >
> >> > P.
> >> >
> >> > On 8 January 2013 07:00, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com <javascript:;>>
> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> the "new plastic".
> >> >> for those better equipped to explian it would u consider graphene a
> >> >> potential bleeding edge technology?
> >> >
> >> >
>
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