June 2009

Graphene has two distinct types of edges produced when it is cut armchair type or zigzag type which correspond to the two crystal axis of graphene. These edge types are predicted theoretically to have distinct electronic, magnetic, and chemical properties, but current fabrication methods have no way of controlling which type of edge is produced and are dominated by disorder.

A solution to this problem has now been found. Nanotechnology researchers have demonstrated anisotropic etching in single-layer graphene which produces connected graphene nanostructures with crystallographically oriented edges. This opens many future avenues to study graphene nanostructures such as nanoribbons, nanoconstrictions, and quantum dots with crystallographic edges. 

Researchers from Germany find a way to improve the density of magnetic data storage, by around a thousand times. The data will also last much longer than is possible today...

Today we are using Cobalt as the material of choice for magnetic data recording. The trouble is that the grains of Cobalt consist of about 50,000 atoms in a hexagonal close packed structure, and it is hard to reduce that number.

Researchers at Ohio State University are developing a technique for mass producing computer chips made from Graphene. The team found a technique for stamping many graphene sheets onto a substrate at once, in precise locations. They carved graphite into different shapes -- a field of microscopic pillars, for example -- and then stamped the shapes onto silicon oxide surfaces.

In this first series of experiments, the Ohio State researchers were able to stamp high-definition features that were ten layers thick, or thicker. The graphite stamp can then be used repeatedly on other predetermined locations on the same or other substrates, making this a mass-production method, potentially.