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Team led by Indian-American develops trickle-down method to ‘grow’ graphene
The Tribune ^ | August 6, 2018 | IANS

Posted on 08/06/2018 9:10:38 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

By making carbon leak (trickle down) through cracks on copper, researchers have developed a new process for “growing” graphene directly on materials used for nano-scale electronic applications, thereby opening the way to produce high-performance electronic devices.

This versatile process, developed by a team of chemical engineers led by Indian-American Vikas Berry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in the US, enables graphene to be economically grown on almost any semiconducting or dielectric substrate of relevance to the electronic industry, the researchers claim.

They have reported this new method in the journal “ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces” of the American Chemical Society and have obtained two US patents. “This method can be a game-changer for applications of the wonder material graphene,” Sanjay Behura, research assistant professor at UIC and one of the authors, told IANS in an email.

Discovered in 2004, graphene is a sheet of a single layer of carbon atoms, arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.

Due to the ultrafast mobility of its charge carriers, graphene has shown promise in nanoelectronics, optoelectronics and photonics. It also possesses a plethora of extraordinary mechanical and thermal properties that are still being exploited.

For nanoelectronic device fabrications, it is essential to transfer the graphene — grown separately on metallic substrates — onto selected dielectric substrates. Current techniques used in the transfer involve a contamination-prone process that introduces unwanted defects and impurities in graphene, making it unfavourable for high-performance nano and optoelectronic devices and industrial applications.

The researchers have overcome this problem by developing a process called “Grain Boundary-Diffusion of Carbon Radicals” for growing high-quality graphene directly on the dielectric substrates, eliminating the need for the contamination-prone transfer process.

This “direct” process involves dissociation of methane (carbon source) in a heated furnace in vacuum. The carbon radicals thus produced from methane dissociation diffuse (trickle) through the grain boundaries of polycrystalline copper thin film and crystallize into graphene at the interface of copper and silicon-based dielectric substrates.

This strategy of growing graphene directly on the substrates is suitable to produce large-scale graphene for industrial applications ranging from nanoscale electronics to energy conversion and optoelectronics, the authors report.

Other contributors of this work include Phong Nguyen from Air Liquide and Michael Seacrist from SunEdison Semiconductors.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Computers/Internet; Science
KEYWORDS: carbon; chicago; electronics; graphene; grapheneoxide; graphyne; illinois; india; uofillinois; vikasberry

1 posted on 08/06/2018 9:10:38 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It is my understanding that making, or growing, graphene is really not all that difficult. The reason that graphene is not yet in many applications is simply because it has not matured as a product and therefore the costs are still high relative to other acceptable alternatives.

Within the next 5 to 10 years my bet is that you will see a much wider use of graphene in products as the costs decrease due to usage and economies of scale are developed. Until then, it’s an amazing discovery slowly working its way into everyday life. It will become ubiquitous.


2 posted on 08/06/2018 9:20:06 AM PDT by Obadiah
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fractal Trader; Fred Nerks; GOPJ; Grimmy; johnthebaptistmoore; ...
If you wanna get down, down on the ground, graphene.

3 posted on 08/06/2018 9:32:54 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

As a immigrant of Indian ethnicity (but not from India), I HATE the term Indian-American (and any other hyphenated American label). I am an American, who happens to have some Indian genetic\cultural origins.


4 posted on 08/06/2018 9:34:16 AM PDT by ThinkingBuddha
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To: ThinkingBuddha

This is an Indian newspaper crowing about the accomplishments of an Indian heritage scientist.


5 posted on 08/06/2018 9:44:14 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: ThinkingBuddha

All of us FR want to write that same thing. I guess I’m a Civil War era-German-English-Polish-American to the SJW crowd.


6 posted on 08/06/2018 9:55:51 AM PDT by lefty-lie-spy (Stay metal. For the Horde \m/("_")\m/ - via iPhone from Tokyo.)
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To: ThinkingBuddha

Funny you should mention that. I thought the same thing when I read the headline. The sooner people stop using these hyphenated nationalities the sooner we can put bigotry on the back burner. Hard to eliminate it completely but maybe one day; but the first step is to stop identifying as multiple nationalities. Pick one and stick with it.

About the topic; it sure looks like Graphene is going to be a game changer just like plastic was.


7 posted on 08/06/2018 10:38:35 AM PDT by Boomer (Leftism is the Mental/Moral Equivalent of End Stage Cancer)
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To: Boomer

It’s from an Indian newspaper. They do this to show how horrible things are in India...Indians prosper out of India.


8 posted on 08/06/2018 1:43:01 PM PDT by Republic_Venom (It's time for some Republic Venom!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

the long hard path of turning scientific discoveries (laboratory tricks) toward practical uses (consumer goods)

Incremental advancements ...


9 posted on 08/06/2018 3:05:10 PM PDT by elbook
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To: lefty-lie-spy

>>> All of us FR want to write that same thing. I guess I’m a Civil War era-German-English-Polish-American to the SJW crowd.


A Scottish-Polish-German-American here ....

SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR THE Scottish-Polish-German-American’s NOW !!!!

UNTIL THEN, NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE (OR LATTE), FOR THE LEFTIST-AMERICAN TYRANT-AMERICANS !!!!


10 posted on 08/06/2018 3:10:18 PM PDT by elbook
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