Aestus Ajith

Get ready for one-dimensional boron chains. We all love graphene - the one-atom-thick sheets of carbon aren't just super flexible, harder than diamond, and stronger than steel, they've also recently  become superconductors  in their own right. But it's not the only over-achieving nanomaterial out there. Researchers have just simulated a stretched out, one-dimensional (1D) chain of boron, predicting that the material could have even weirder properties than graphene. To be clear, 1D boron chains haven't been created as yet - so far, this research is purely based on detailed computer simulations of the new material. But labs have already successfully synthesised atom-thick and  fullerene  - cage-like buckyball - forms of boron, and single-atom-thick-carbon chains known as  carbyne  (pictured above) have also been created. So the researchers predict it's only a matter of time before 1D boron-atom chains become a reality too. If that's the...

Okay, wow. It's official: graphene has been made into a superconductor in its natural state - which means electrical current can flow through it with zero resistance. Last year , physicists managed to do this by doping graphene with calcium atoms, but this is the first time researchers have achieved superconductivity in the material without having to alter it. And the results so far show that the material achieves an incredibly rare type of superconductivity that's even crazier and more powerful than scientists expected. The new research is a big deal even for a material as innately impressive as graphene, seeing as superconductivity is the key to more efficient electronics, better power grids, and new medical technology. "It has long been postulated that, under the right conditions, graphene should undergo a superconducting transition, but can't,"  said one of the researchers, Jason Robinson from the University of Cambridge in the UK. Now, he says ...

Wonder material graphene has been turned into a superconductor Graphene: where electrons have no mass and no resistance. Researchers in Japan have found a way to make the 'wonder material' graphene superconductive - which means electricity can flow through it with zero resistance. The new property adds to graphene's already impressive list of attributes, like the fact that it's stronger than steel, harder than diamond, and incredibly flexible.   But superconductivity is a big deal, even for graphene, because when electricity can flow without resistance, it can lead to significantly more efficient electronic devices, not to mention power lines. Right now, energy companies are  losing about 7 percent of their energy  as heat as a result of resistance in the grid.  Before you get too excited, this demonstration of superconductivity in graphene occurred at a super cold -269 degrees Celsius, so we're not going to be making power lines out of graphene an...

Atomic carbon (black spheres) is evaporated at over 2,300 degrees Celcius and deposited on a silver platform where flakes of graphene form. Lighter-colored regions correspond to graphene growth and silver is depicted in the darker regions. (Phys.org) —Silver, meet graphene. Super strong, super light, near totally transparent and one of the best conductors of electricity ever discovered, graphene is a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms that owes its amazing properties to being two-dimensional. Graphene, meet  silver . Silver is a high-quality noble metal that corrodes very slowly in moist air and doesn't typically interact chemically with other substances. Graphene, meanwhile, is a sought-after platform for new physics and device applications. "You have one material, silver, that's really good at confining light and another,  graphene , that's really good with efficiently moving electrons," said Northwestern University graduate student Brian Kiraly, who d...