By Stephanie Laird

Physicists from the Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute researching the electron properties in graphene ribbons recently discovered that narrow wires made of this material may not behave as good conductors.

Dr. Nancy Sandler, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Ohio University, in collaboration with postdoctoral fellow Mahdi Zarea, began researching the electron phenomena present in graphene wires over a year ago. Graphene – a single planar sheet of carbon-bonded atoms that forms graphite in its layered form – is considered to be the natural successor for silicon – the semiconductor material that dominants present-day electronics.

According to Sandler, under certain conditions carbon is a better conductor than silicon, because only a minimum push is required to stimulate electrons to move in graphene. They also move faster and refrain from deviating from their path, even at room temperatures.

When graphene is made into very thin wires however, the conduction properties of the material change dramatically. Sandler and Zarea's findings on the 'minimum widths' below which graphene ribbons fail to be good conductors at room temperatures due to the natural repulsion of like charges when they are confined, was recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters and in the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology.

Click this link for the full article.