Graphene

As reported, British scientist developed a kind of films which is only of an atom’s thickness using a matter called graphene.

As reported, British scientist developed a kind of films which is only of an atom’s thickness using a matter called graphene. It is, in present world, the material with highest intensity that can withstand severe stress. It can be used to create the world’s smallest transistor.  
    This achievement is expected to bring breaks to the development of ultrahighspeed computer chips, and it is also very useful to medical technology. Professor Andre Geim and Dr.Kostya Novoselov University of Manchester published on this month’s Natural Matter Journal their cooperation with the German Max Planck Institute on the production of a kind of transistor using graphite film. This transistor is only one atom thick, less than 50 atoms in width. Graphite film can be used to make ultra speed computer chips, and graphite transistor can be used to make microprocessor. At present, silica chips are in the process of minimizing, but silica represented an unstable property in smaller size, which is the bottle neck for the technique. Scientists believe that, if graphite film can solve this problem, computer chips will be minimized in size and process speed will be faster in great extent. In addition, the graphite film can also be used in the manufacture of microfilter for decomposition of gas. In medical field, this one atom think film can be used to support molecule to be inspected and analyzed under electronic microscope, which is a great help to promote the development of new medical research. Graphite can also be used to make bulletproof vests, paper and the space elevator in future. 
It is an important problem whether mass production is possible. Graphite film of an atom thickness will hard to manufacture.     Recently, the U.S. Brookhaven National Laboratory found an approach for production of a high quality graphite sheet. Matrix used by Brookhaven is a rare metal ruthenium. To start, researchers let carbon atoms infiltrate into ruthenium in 1150? , when cooling to 850? , a large number of carbon atoms absorbed previously will float to the surface of ruthenium. The single lens shaped carbon atoms "island" covered the entire surface of the matrix. They may eventually grow into full graphite. After the first layer covering reaches 80%, the second layer growth starts. The bottom of the graphite ruthenium has a strong reaction, and will entirely be separated from ruthenium after the second layer, leaving only weak electric connections. This second graphite retains the inherent electronic structure, which is satisfactory. 
    Graphene material is the hopeful star in electronics industry and the hot spot in recent years’ scientific research. For example, its carrier is good in mobility, electrons may move freely in it; it can also react with a single gas molecules, which allow it to act as a receptor for the detection of materials.