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Saturday, May 15, 2010

RT #Graphene sheets preped as thermal management material #Semiconductor #Microchip

Graphene--crystalline sheets of pure carbon--conduct heat as well as they conduct electricity, making them ideal for thermal management applications, but in need of a fabrication method. Now University of California at Riverside researcher Alexander Balandin claims to have solved the fabrication problem. Look for graphene as a thermal material within three years. R.C.J.


Here's what the researchers say about their work: Hot New Material Can Keep Electronics Cool, according to professor Alexander Balandin and a team of UC Riverside researchers, including Chun Ning Lau, an associate professor of physics. The UCR researchers have taken another step toward new technology that could keep laptops and other electronic devices from overheating. Balandin, a professor of electrical engineering in the Bourns College of Engineering, experimentally showed in 2008 that graphene, a recently discovered single-atom-thick carbon crystal, is a strong heat conductor. The problem for practical applications was that it is difficult to produce large, high quality single atomic layers of the material. Now, in a paper published in Nature Materials, Balandin and co-workers found that multiple layers of graphene, which are easier to make, retain the strong heat conducting properties.
Full Text: http://bit.ly/aVLrEv