Stanford Researchers Might Have Found a Way to Create a Graphene-Like Material That Is Also an Insulator
2nd July 2014
A big problem with graphene, a super-strong, atom-thick material that could soon be used to build a new generation of thin and flexible electronics, is that it constantly conducts electricity. Electronics need to be able to turn the flow on and off, which is not currently possible with a pure sheet of graphene.
Stanford researchers wrote in Nature Communications Tuesday that they have come up with one of a growing number of alternatives. It might not be as strong or thin as graphene, but the three-atom-thick material they modeled has the unusual feature of being able to switch between two different atomic structures, allowing it to turn the flow of electricity on or off like a light switch.