[BostonCard]

Just because... the Economist's technology quarterly featured a special on materials science, including the following passage on our old friend graphene:

At this scale, problems such as power leakages and instability start to crop up. One day silicon may well make way for other materials that promise superior electrical properties, such as gallium arsenide, titanium trisulphide or possibly graphene.
Unclaimed treasure
Much hyped as a “wonder material”, graphene is a form of carbon discovered in 2004 at Manchester University in Britain by Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, who won the Nobel prize in physics for their work. It is one of a number of two-dimensional materials, so called because they are only an atom or so thick. Lots of researchers and startups have moved into graphene because it is extremely light yet strong; it is transparent; and it can be made to work as a semiconductor. So far, though, most graphene is used in research labs, which are still looking for a “killer app”. Beside computer chips, potential uses might include membranes for water purification, more efficient solar cells and invisible electrodes in glass. Meanwhile, though, carbon in other forms is already big business in two of the world’s largest manufacturing industries.

http://www.economist.com/technology-quar...yquarterly

You can read the whole thing to find out what other materials you should be intrigued about.

BC

[BostonCard]

Just because... the Economist's technology quarterly featured a special on materials science, including the following passage on our old friend graphene:

At this scale, problems such as power leakages and instability start to crop up. One day silicon may well make way for other materials that promise superior electrical properties, such as gallium arsenide, titanium trisulphide or possibly graphene.
Unclaimed treasure
Much hyped as a “wonder material”, graphene is a form of carbon discovered in 2004 at Manchester University in Britain by Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, who won the Nobel prize in physics for their work. It is one of a number of two-dimensional materials, so called because they are only an atom or so thick. Lots of researchers and startups have moved into graphene because it is extremely light yet strong; it is transparent; and it can be made to work as a semiconductor. So far, though, most graphene is used in research labs, which are still looking for a “killer app”. Beside computer chips, potential uses might include membranes for water purification, more efficient solar cells and invisible electrodes in glass. Meanwhile, though, carbon in other forms is already big business in two of the world’s largest manufacturing industries.

http://www.economist.com/technology-quar...yquarterly

You can read the whole thing to find out what other materials you should be intrigued about.

BC