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Is graphene a miracle material?

news.bbc.co.uk

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Re: Is graphene a miracle material?

#11

Post by CoffeeDregs »

SwellJoe wrote: post #7
CoffeeDregs wrote: post #4

Graphene and, more generally, carbon nanotubes are exciting because they have something-for-everyone. Silicon, plastics, water are examples of molecules or structures that have also been spun into important applications for just about every vertical. I suspect we'll seem carbon nanotube products explode over the next 20 years just as plastics did over the last 40. The article focuses a bit on whether graphene can rep…

Reading this article brought to mind this scene in The Graduate : Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Benjamin: Yes, sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Benjamin: Yes, I am. Mr. McGuire: Plastics. Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean? So, I'm wondering how and where I should be investing to take advantage of this materials revolution. Seems like a pretty obvious bet to make, but it seems to…

Actually, The Graduate was exactly what I was thinking as I was typing my comment. ;)

Edit: didn't reply to the bigger point about oil companies. I kinda threw that out there as a quick thought and agree with you that the semiconductor, semi-co materials, or LCD guys might be better positioned. That said, few companies are as good at gathering, refining, processing and shipping gigatons of carbon as the oil companies.

Re: Is graphene a miracle material?

#12

Post by ori_b »

CognitiveLens wrote: post #9

If IBM can make a 150 GHz graphene transistor, why does Dr Phaedon Avouris, of IBM, say that it cannot replace silicon? Isn't clock frequency a measure of the transistor's ability to turn on and off quickly?

There's so much more than clock frequency. The place silicon shines isn't so much it's material properties for producing individual switches - they're good, but there's better out there.

It's the raw manufacturability that silicon has. It's by far the easiest material to work with. It's abundant, cheap, and easy to obtain. It's got properties that lend it to easy junction doping and easy annealing. It's easy to deposit new layers on top of etched silicon. It's got a lattice that matches up nicely with the materials you'd want to use for contacts.

In short, the advantages of silicon aren't in it's ability to make transistors. It's in it's ability to make transistors while on a high volume assembly line.

It's going to be a while if we see whether graphene can match silicon for that.

Re: Is graphene a miracle material?

#13

Post by Alex3917 »

SwellJoe wrote: post #7
CoffeeDregs wrote: post #4

Graphene and, more generally, carbon nanotubes are exciting because they have something-for-everyone. Silicon, plastics, water are examples of molecules or structures that have also been spun into important applications for just about every vertical. I suspect we'll seem carbon nanotube products explode over the next 20 years just as plastics did over the last 40. The article focuses a bit on whether graphene can rep…

Reading this article brought to mind this scene in The Graduate : Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Benjamin: Yes, sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Benjamin: Yes, I am. Mr. McGuire: Plastics. Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean? So, I'm wondering how and where I should be investing to take advantage of this materials revolution. Seems like a pretty obvious bet to make, but it seems to…

"So, I'm wondering how and where I should be investing to take advantage of this materials revolution."

Find out which schools are doing the most interesting research in this area, and then talk with the tech transfer people at each university. They should be more than happy to hook you up.

Re: Is graphene a miracle material?

#14

Post by sliverstorm »

ori_b wrote: post #12
CognitiveLens wrote: post #9

If IBM can make a 150 GHz graphene transistor, why does Dr Phaedon Avouris, of IBM, say that it cannot replace silicon? Isn't clock frequency a measure of the transistor's ability to turn on and off quickly?

There's so much more than clock frequency. The place silicon shines isn't so much it's material properties for producing individual switches - they're good, but there's better out there. It's the raw manufacturability that silicon has. It's by far the easiest material to work with. It's abundant, cheap, and easy to obtain. It's got properties that lend it to easy junction doping and easy annealing. It's easy to depos…

Yup. It's always sobering to remember that there's already plenty of higher-performance materials than silicon- but silicon is so much cheaper to use, it simply outperforms everything else in performance-per-dollar by an incredible margin.

Re: Is graphene a miracle material?

#16

Post by Sapient »

Optical computers, genetic catalogs, nanorepair modules--forget all of that. It's when you see a megaton of steel suspended over your head by a thread the thickness of a human hair that you really find God in technology.

* Anonymous Metagenics Dockworker - MorganLink 3DVision Live Interview

Re: Is graphene a miracle material?

#17

Post by jerf »

CoffeeDregs wrote: post #11
SwellJoe wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading this article brought to mind this scene in The Graduate : Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Benjamin: Yes, sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Benjamin: Yes, I am. Mr. McGuire: Plastics. Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean? So, I'm wondering how and where I should be investing to take advantage of this materials revolution. Seems like a pretty obvious bet to make, but it seems to…

Actually, The Graduate was exactly what I was thinking as I was typing my comment. ;) Edit: didn't reply to the bigger point about oil companies. I kinda threw that out there as a quick thought and agree with you that the semiconductor, semi-co materials, or LCD guys might be better positioned. That said, few companies are as good at gathering, refining, processing and shipping gigatons of carbon as the oil companies…

"That said, few companies are as good at gathering, refining, processing and shipping gigatons of carbon"

That's abstracting too far. The food industry ships around gigatons of carbon too, which is just as "graphenic" as oil, namely, zero. Pencil manufacturers actually use graphene, but it seems unlikely they're going to lead this drive either.

Re: Is graphene a miracle material?

#18

Post by MrJagil »

Sapient wrote: post #16

Optical computers, genetic catalogs, nanorepair modules--forget all of that. It's when you see a megaton of steel suspended over your head by a thread the thickness of a human hair that you really find God in technology. * Anonymous Metagenics Dockworker - MorganLink 3DVision Live Interview

I hate to be that guy but:

"megaton |ˈmegəˌtən|

noun

a unit of explosive power chiefly used for nuclear weapons, equivalent to one million tons of TNT"

Re: Is graphene a miracle material?

#19

Post by [deleted] »

jerf wrote: post #17
CoffeeDregs wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, The Graduate was exactly what I was thinking as I was typing my comment. ;) Edit: didn't reply to the bigger point about oil companies. I kinda threw that out there as a quick thought and agree with you that the semiconductor, semi-co materials, or LCD guys might be better positioned. That said, few companies are as good at gathering, refining, processing and shipping gigatons of carbon as the oil companies…

"That said, few companies are as good at gathering, refining, processing and shipping gigatons of carbon" That's abstracting too far. The food industry ships around gigatons of carbon too, which is just as "graphenic" as oil, namely, zero. Pencil manufacturers actually use graphene, but it seems unlikely they're going to lead this drive either.

[deleted]

Re: Is graphene a miracle material?

#20

Post by Bud »

MrJagil wrote: post #18
Sapient wrote: post #16

Optical computers, genetic catalogs, nanorepair modules--forget all of that. It's when you see a megaton of steel suspended over your head by a thread the thickness of a human hair that you really find God in technology. * Anonymous Metagenics Dockworker - MorganLink 3DVision Live Interview

I hate to be that guy but: "megaton |ˈmegəˌtən| noun a unit of explosive power chiefly used for nuclear weapons, equivalent to one million tons of TNT"

You're being that guy. Plus, you're wrong.

Mega- is a standard SI prefix, and the use of "megaton" to denote one million tons is entirely correct. Yes, it's also true that "megaton" has a second meaning. This fact does not invalidate its other meaning. In fact, if you bother looking this up in actual dictionaries, you'll find that the normal mass definition is often listed first, and the explosive definition is listed second, for what it's worth.

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