Cars Made of Scotch Tape ??

[Monster]

Ultrathin Carbon Wins 2010 Nobel Physics Prize
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
By Karl Ritter and Louise Nordstrom, AP

Two Russian-born scientists shared the Nobel Price in physics Tuesday for groundbreaking experiments with the strongest and thinnest material known to mankind - a potential building block for faster computers and lighter airplanes and satellites.

University of Manchester professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov used Scotch tape to isolate graphene, a form of carbon only one atom thick but more than 100 times stronger than steel.

Experiments with graphene could lead to development of new superstrong and lightweight materials with which to make satellites, aircraft and cars.

The unique properties of the transparent material could also spur the development of innovative electronics, including transparent touch screens, more efficient computers and solar cells. "It has all the potential to change your life in the same way that plastics did," Geim said.

The two scientists used simple Scotch tape as a crucial tool in their experiments, peeling off think flakes of graphene from a piece of graphite, the stuff of pencil leads.

[TC]

Re: Cars Made of Scotch Tape ??

Carbon Nano Tubes??

I have a friend that's all into Nano Technology, he's been talking about this stuff for years.

[squirrel]

Re: Cars Made of Scotch Tape ??

"Graphene is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice."

"Carbon nanotubes (CNTs; also known as buckytubes) are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure."

one's flat...one's a tube...not quite the same thing! even though they're both made of carbon atoms.

[ford141]

Re: Cars Made of Scotch Tape ??

Nanotubes are a whole different subject, and yes that technology has been around for years.

Graphene is the newest buzz in the materials science world. Just remember - while graphene is 100 times stronger than steel, it is only one atom thick - so constructing structural parts from it is impossible at this stage. The most interesting property is the extremely fast electron mobility of a single atomic layer - Think VERY fast, VERY small computer chips - really paves the way for extremely small and lightweight supercomputers. The biggest limitation right now is how to produce it, while you can make a layer by pulling a piece of tape off of piece of graphite - you then have to search the surface with a microscope to find a layer that is only one atom thick, which is very hit and miss.

Up until February of this year, I worked on building and modifying furnace systems here at the Penn State Electro-Optics Center to grow graphene. I have since transferred into another division , but the graphene research is still going strong. We are currently working on ways to grow graphene in a controlled manner on a silicon carbide substrate so that we can have a large-area uniform graphene layer that can be used for construction of electrical circuits. One way that we are doing this is to start with Silicon carbide substrate, and "extract" the silicon from the surface by reacting it with HCL, leaving behind a layer of structured carbon, or graphene, on the surface. Here is one of the papers describing the process written by some of my coworkers:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TWD-4YS4WCH-6&_user=209810&_coverDate=08%2F31%2F2010&_alid=149 0312530&_rdoc=3&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=sea rch&_zone=rslt_list_item&_cdi=5560&_sort=r&_st=13& _docanchor=&view=c&_ct=7&_acct=C000014439&_version =1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=209810&md5=822a5a24c281fc a5d2e0f71f090c74bc&searchtype=a

[studemax]

Re: Cars Made of Scotch Tape ??

Well, Mickey Thompson made a body for his first slingshot dragster out of paper mache' and chicken wire, so why not?

[Barry Donovan]

Re: Cars Made of Scotch Tape ??

a layer one atom thick is forgetting the earth is round and a box holds stuff.

if it were 100 times stronger than steel, we'd have a graphene planet. This market scandal can go right to self destructive flunking hell. >

there are many one atom layers.. all finding something else to stay strong or die.

WTF is graphene but a midget ninja martyr.