Graphene

Graphene is made up of pure carbon and it is only one atom thick.  It is very light material and strongest and best conductor too. It is only weighing 77 milligram of 1 square meter sheet. In 1962, Hanns Peter Boehm describes the single layer carbon foils.  The term Graphene is combination of graphite and suffix-ene. The atoms are densely packed in a honey comb crystal lattice.  (PanARMENIAN.Net)

            After 2004, it is a matter for research. Every scientist is trying to find something new with this material as through this many applications could be made. It has potentially important applications in nanotechnology. Graphene is used in many devices such as mobile phones and bionic devices could also be made through Graphene. The beauty of Graphene is that it demonstrates the clear-cut basic laws and rules of the physics. Although very less time had been passed to research on this material but looking at the current advantages it seems that it will be the most useable and most beneficial matter for the devices. (Mikhail, 2012)

            Due to its high current density, ballistic transport, high thermal conductivity, optical transmittance, ballistic transport and super hydrophobicity at nanometer scale this Graphene material became the material which is most researched in the last 6-7 years. (Wonbong, Jo-won Lee, 2012)

Graphene is better than other materials because of the following reasons

·         It is only one atom thick that makes it mathematically 2 dimensional and one of the thinnest thing that ever has been made.

·         It is made of carbon structure called graphite.

·         It is easily stretched. It can expand up to 25% of its original length.

·         It’s the stiffest and the hardest material that is known to us. This material is even harder than diamond.

·         It is the thinnest material that we have ever got.

·         It is good to transfer electricity. Its current density is million times better than copper.

·         Graphene conducts best heat. It is reduced when it is heated up while it expands when cooled.

·         It is the most resistant material till now. (Anna, 2013)

Graphene in Electronic use

          Mobile were having keyboards and other buttons to operate it but now the electronic gadgets like iPad, Mobile phone and other electronic things have the touch screen to operate it. The main concept of this touch screen is that the layer that stores the electric charge should be placed on the panel of the screen. When user touches the screen it transfers some of the charge. Hence the charge of the screen decreases and this decrease is measured by sensors and then it responds to the processor.

            All these things are possible because they are having a thin layer of sheet which can hold charge. Most of the screen today has a thin layer of indium tin oxide. This material is so fragile.  This leads to thick and inflexible display. Graphene can also be printed on plastic instead of glass so they could be made flexible and lighter. This would make phone much lighter than before and it even can be folded. It will be as flexible as it could be easily slipped to the pocket. This would be unbreakable phones. (Michael, 2012) 

 The ability to manufacture high frequency transistors with graphene is probable as the electrons move extremely fast in Graphene as compare to that of silicon. (Understandingnano)

References

 UK to boost development of "super-material" grapheme, Retrieved from, http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/139601/

Anna Kurkijärvi (February 7, 2013), Hero material: 10 fascinating facts about graphene, Retrieved from, http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/02/07/hero-material-10-fascinating-facts-about-graphene/

Mikhail I. Katsnelson (2012), Graphene: Carbon in Two Dimensions, Cambridge University Press

Wonbong Choi, Jo-won Lee (2012), Graphene: Synthesis and Applications, CRC Press

 Michael Tinnesand (2012), Graphene: The Next Wonder Material?, Retrieved from, http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_MULTICOLUMN_T2_66&node_id=893&use_sec=false&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=b6e25e8a-d202-4e6e-b026-df3080001755

Graphene, It’s Uses and Applications, Retrieved from, http://www.understandingnano.com/graphene-applications.html