Graphene

[|Graphene]’s discoverers were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their find. And it’s no wonder; the material is 200 times stronger than steel, and many times thinner than a human hair. It has the potential to accelerate internet speeds by 100 times, and recharge a lithium-ion battery 10 times as fast as a normal battery.

[|The new Strongest Material Ever] is mostly carbon, the same building block in diamond and buckytubes. The difference with graphene is it lays neatly in a sheet one molecule thick, like ultra-thin plastic wrap.


 * [|Engineers Make Electrical Contact to Graphene on It's 1-Atom-Thick Edge] - potential applications are incredible, from vertically structured transistors, tunneling based devices and sensors, photoactive hybrid materials, to flexible and transparent electronics


 * [|Graphene and Perskovite Are a Winning Combination for Photovoltaics] - researchers have developed a photovoltaic system in which graphene and titanium dioxide combine to serve as the charge collector while perovskite acts as the sunlight absorber.


 * [|Graphene-treated rubber bands] used as inexpensive body motion sensors. They are stretchy, and electrically conductive. If they're wired up to a power source and then stretched as the result of even a subtle movement, there's a detectable effect on the current flowing through them.


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 * News, updates**
 * [|Artificial graphene could outperform the real thing] - Graphene is truly a 21st-century wonder material, finding use in everything from solar cells to batteries to tiny antennas. Now, however, a group of European research institutes have joined forces to create a graphene knock-off, that could prove to be even more versatile.


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