Invisible Homemade Plate Hangers

Nobel Prize in Physics 2010

The technological revolution is making strides, and to retain well this word, " graphene." It is not a simple concept, this sheet of carbon just one atom thick is the cause of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 the Royal Academy of Sweden Sciences awarded since 1901. On this occasion, the prize was awarded to two scientists from the University of Manchester, Andre Geim and Novoselov Konstantin by the discovery in 2004, and investigation of this two-dimensional material, which has extraordinary properties in the world of physics quantum (a branch of science that studies the behavior of matter when the dimensions are very small).

Andre Geim and Novoselov Konstantin / Nobel Foundation

Graphene has been known and described for more than half a century. Yet scientists have never been separate mode of graphite (material from the mines of the pencils), until Geim proposed to a PhD student (Novoselov) investigating the remains left in graphite tape (the method to study the graffiti is to have the polished surface as possible, to that end, stick the tape to the material and pull it).

graphene

Structure

From these studies, we found the graphene and its unique properties, among which are its thinness (is the world's thinnest material), high strength, transparency, flexibility, strength (one hundred times more than steel) high mobility of carriers and low noise. This makes it a good conductor of electricity (its action resembles that of copper) and heat (more than any other material). Moreover, being composed of carbon (organic element, very common on the planet) is much easier to find and less polluting. All these features lead to a wide variety of applications and electronic materials (Can be achieved, for example, computers or solar panels more efficient and less costly). This is one of the reasons why it has been proposed as the replacement for silicon (used in the manufacture of computer chips.) In fact, Samsung with the assistance of Sungkyunkwan University (South Korea), next year will bring the first graphene screens, shutters, tactile and invisible circuits.

Still, not all scientists share the enthusiasm for graphene. The Dutch physicist Walt de Heer says that "never replace silicon graphene. Nobody who knows the scene can say this seriously. Just do things that silicon can not do. It is like ships and aircraft. The planes will never replace the ships. "

Facts:

Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded since 1901, except in 1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941 and 1942 . To date, scientists have obtained 188.

In 2000, Geim was awarded IgNobel (parody of the Nobel prizes) and levitate a frog in a magnetic field.

Konstantin Novoselov, 36, is the youngest scientist to receive this prize (since 1973).

The prize of this award is around 1.1 million euros.
The chemical bonding and structure of graphene is described in the 1930 and the electronic band structure in 1949 (Wallace).
The word "graphene" was officially adopted in 1944 (formerly it was called "monolayer of graphite).
Graphene, diamond and graphite are three elements from carbon. What determines the properties of each material lies in the way their atoms are arranged. The diamond is three dimensional, but graphite and graphene are two dimensional. However, in graphene, atoms are flat (honeycomb) and graphite, no.
By having a flat structure, graphene becomes almost unbreakable, so it is investigating its use in bulletproof vests, solar cells (thermal conductor) and analysis (results of sensors), among others.


If you have any doubts, here are a article The Country, written by Elsa Prada (CSIC researcher) which explains very well the theme:

History of discovery

Also I leave the video of the news in Four :