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Massachusetts (USA)
Experience: None
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: YM
Posts: 750 since Jun 2009
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Hi guys/gals
I sent this e-mail to a friend a few weeks ago. This is about graphene.
IF this material can be mass produced I think it will
be huge in the 21st century. The link at the bottom is to wikipedia, but
you really need a physics backround to understand it fully (my opinion).
Graphene is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. Graphene is most easily visualized as an atomic-scale chicken wire made of carbon atoms and their bonds.
Graphene is the basic structural element of some carbon allotropes including graphite, charcoal, carbon nanotubes, and fullerenes. It can also be considered as an indefinitely large aromaticmolecule, the limiting case of the family of flat polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene"
Experimental methods for the production of graphene ribbons are reported consisting of cutting open nanotubes.[43] In one such method multi walled carbon nanotubes are cut open in solution by action of potassium permanganate and sulfuric acid.[44] In another method graphene nanoribbons are produced by plasma etching of nanotubes partly embedded in a polymer film [45]
Graphene differs from most conventional three-dimensional materials. Intrinsic graphene is a semi-metal or zero-gap semiconductor.
Due to its two-dimensional property, charge fractionalization (where the apparent charge of individual pseudoparticles in low-dimensional systems is less than a single quantum[65]) is thought to occur in graphene. It may therefore be a suitable material for the construction ofquantum computers using anyonic circuits.[66][67]
Graphene has the ideal properties to be an excellent component of integrated circuits. Graphene has a high carrier mobility, as well as low noise, allowing it to be used as the channel in a FET. The issue is that single sheets of graphene are hard to produce, and even harder to make on top of an appropriate substrate. Researchers are looking into methods of transferring single graphene sheets from their source of origin (mechanical exfoliation on SiO2 / Si or thermal graphitization of a SiC surface) onto a target substrate of interest.[109] In 2008, the smallest transistor so far, one atom thick, 10 atoms wide was made of graphene.[110] IBM announced in December 2008 that they fabricated and characterized graphene transistors operating at GHz frequencies.
Due to the extremely high surface area to mass ratio of graphene, one potential application is in the conductive plates of ultracapacitors.
As of 2009, graphene appears to be one of the strongest materials ever tested. Measurements have shown that graphene has a breaking strength 200 times greater than steel, a bulk strength of 130GPa.
Graphene - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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SCOTT: Well, this a fine place you have here, Doctor Nichols.
NICHOLS: Thank you. I must say, Professor, your knowledge of engineering is most impressive.
McCOY: Back home, we call him the miracle worker.
NICHOLS: Indeed. ...May I offer you something, gentlemen?
SCOTT: Doctor Nichols, I may be able to offer something to you.
NICHOLS: Yes?
SCOTT: I notice you're still working with polymers.
NICHOLS: Still? What else would I be working with?
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
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