2-D materials
Concrete, stainless steel, and silicon made the modern era possible. Now a new class of materials, each consisting of a single layer of atoms, are emerging, with far-reaching potential.
Known as two-dimensional materials, this class has grown within the past few years to include lattice-like layers of carbon (graphene), boron (borophene) and hexagonal boron nitride (aka white graphene), germanium (germanene), silicon (silicene), phosphorous (phosphorene) and tin (stanene). There are more 2D materials that are theoretically possible but not yet synthesized.
- It is 200 times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible.
- It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent.
- It is the world's first 2D material and is one million times smaller than the diameter of a single human hair.
Graphene can be used as a coating to improve current touch screens for phones and tablets. It can also be used to make the circuitry for our computers making them incredibly fast. These are just two examples of how graphene can enhance today's devices. Graphene can also spark the next-generation of electronics.
Graphene could see a smart phone which you could wear on your wrist or a tablet you could roll up like a newspaper. Flexible, wearable electronics take advantage of graphene's mechanical properties as well as its conductivity. Indium-tin oxide is currently used for touch screens as it conducts well but it is brittle.
