One-molecule-thick material has big advantages • Hacker News Board

Re: One-molecule-thick material has big advantages

#11

Post by randallsquared » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:35 PM UTC

pilgrim689 wrote: post #8

Eduardo3rd wrote: post #6

I'm starting to grow a little bit numb toward all the revolutionary materials science papers that I've seen since starting grad school. I don't mean to malign the work done here, but if I had a dollar for every paper I've read that claimed to be the foundation for a new class of devices I'd be rich enough to start my own seed fund. When will we see some actual commercialization of this nano tech? The nano future has…

"Let's make some devices already." That's genius. We need to relay this idea to the science people. Is there a mailing list? Oh! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nanotechnology_applicat... , Nevermind! :P

Chips with small feature sizes and paints with nanoparticles in them are not really what was originally meant by "nanotechnology". We still do not have the capability to design and build arbitrary machinery using individual molecules as building materials. In the meantime, the word "nanotechnology" got appropriated to refer to anything that involved small feature sizes and needed funding grants, so Drexler started calling it "molecular manufacturing"...

Re: One-molecule-thick material has big advantages

#12

Post by hypnocode » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 5:56 PM UTC

chime wrote: post #2

This may be a stupid question but can you even see something that is just one molecule thick? Is it mostly transparent?

according to the actual report http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl302015v Two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), have been shown to exhibit excellent electrical and optical properties.

While I have no specialization in the area, I gather that the scientist are suggesting it may be useful as a sort of screen technology, from the article

"For example, MoS2 could be applied to glass, producing displays built into a pair of eyeglasses or the window of a house or office."

Very exciting stuff.

Re: One-molecule-thick material has big advantages

#13

Post by Ralith » Thu, Aug 23, 2012, 6:00 PM UTC

Spytap wrote: post #5

I wonder what the likelihood is of this being a solution for Augmented Reality contact lenses. The article mentions the possibility of it being used to build displays for eyeglasses, but that depends on a number of factors like pixel density that I can never tell whether reporters take into account.

That it might be useful for displays at all is mere speculation at this point. Meaningful conjecture on the characteristics of those displays is beyond the scientists doing the research themselves; don't get your hopes up for the reporters doing any better.