British first to replace graphene with insulators is expected to replace silicon chips

According to a report from the American Physicist Organization Network on October 10 (Beijing time), scientists from the University of Manchester in the UK wrote an article in Nature Physics that they used two pieces of boron nitrate and two pieces of graphene to form a " Big Mac hamburger. This is the first time that scientists have turned graphene into an insulator. This "Macro hamburger" is expected to replace the silicon in computers.

Graphene is a two-dimensional crystal composed of carbon atoms that is peeled off from a graphite material. The thickness of only one layer of carbon atoms is the thinnest and most rigid material so far. Its conductive and thermal conductivity is superior to silicon and Other traditional semiconductor materials. With more and more in-depth study of graphene, scientists believe that graphene is expected to completely change the field of materials science, the future can replace silicon to become electronic components materials, widely used in supercomputers, touch screens and photonic sensors and other fields.

In this latest study, scientists combined two layers of graphene with two other layers of boron nitrate to assemble a four-layer sandwich-like material and named it "The Big Mac." The two layers of boron nitrate are used not only to isolate two layers of graphene, but also to display the reaction when the graphene is completely surrounded by other materials, thus enabling scientists to observe for the first time what happens when graphene is not affected by the environment.

The main author of the study, Leonid Ponomarenco of the University of Manchester, stated: "The manufacture of this multi-layer structure allows us to eliminate the negative effects of the surrounding environment and control the electrical properties of graphene. Can't do this."

He said: "So far, people have never used graphene as an insulator unless it is destroyed correctly. Now, scientists have for the first time turned high-quality graphene into an insulator."

University of Manchester Professor Andre Gaim who won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for his outstanding contribution to the research of graphene pointed out: "We are always looking for new ways to improve the performance of graphene. The latest graphene coated with boron nitrate It is technically very important to provide the best and most advanced platform for the future of graphene electronic equipment, which solves the problem of stability and quality of graphene that scientists have been worrying about. These two problems have been It is a dark cloud hovering over the brilliant prospect of making various electronic devices with graphene.”

Gaim also explained that now they only do this on a smaller scale, but the results show that everything related to graphene can be expanded.

Just last week, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, visited the University of Manchester laboratory studying graphene, and stated that the British government will provide 50 million pounds (about US$ 77.78 million) to help develop new materials based on this technology.