Graphene is one hundred times thinner than the smallest silicon transistor possible and graphene conducts electricity much more efficiently. However, graphene sheets tend to curl up and react with substances around them, making them difficult to build into devices.
Yakov Kopelevich and Pablo Esquinazi of the State University of Campinas in Brazil claim all the properties of graphene are present in graphite and graphite is easier and cheaper to produce and doesn’t curl up, thanks to the stabilising effect of the adjacent layers.
FURTHER READING
Graphene physics in graphite, 9 page paper
Experimental evidence indicates that high-quality graphite is a multi-layer system with nearly decoupled 2D graphene planes. Based on experimental observations, we anticipate that thin graphite samples and not single layers will be the most promising candidates for graphene-based electronics.
A 4 page paper, A comparison of the magnetic properties of Proton- and Iron-implanted graphite.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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