Discovery points way to graphene electronic circuits
August 8, 2011
The magnetic properties of graphene triangles change depending upon the borders they share with a surrounding sheet of “white graphene.” The magnetic moments of these triangles are antiparallel because the border on the right contains mostly boron and the border on the left contains mostly nitrogen (credit: B. Yakobson/Rice University)
Materials scientists at Rice University have made a fundamental discovery that could make it easier for engineers to build electronic circuits out of graphene.
The scientists have found a way to precisely control the electronic properties of alloys that contain both white and black graphene.
The researchers said that they can precisely predict the electronic properties of the final product based solely upon chemical potential during synthesis. If more boron is available during chemical synthesis, that leads to alloys with a certain type of geometric arrangement of atoms.
Ref.: Yuanyue Liu, Somnath Bhowmick, & Boris I. Yakobson, BN White Graphene with “Colorful” Edges: The Energies and Morphology, Nano Letters, 2011; 110714092023006 [DOI: 10.1021/nl2011142]