Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by Armisael16 on Monday March 05, 2018 @01:46PM
(#16523268)
For those who are curious: the Tc is stated as up to 1.7K in the abstract of the Nature preprint (https://www.nature.com/articles/nature26160). This isn’t a high-temperature superconductor.
It’s still very interesting though (as things in Nature usually are). I’m a little surprised no one had looked at electrical conductivity with misaligned vdW epitaxy - it seems like the an obvious thing to look at to me. They’re still using micro mechanical cleavage (ie, peel it off with tape) - maybe it was a cleanliness or size issue? Maybe it’s just easy hindsight.
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by godelski on Monday March 05, 2018 @02:47PM
(#16523780)
The hard thing is making large sheets and single layer. Multi-layer and small sheets is pretty easy. Too many sheets, and you have graphite though. But those small chunks have some useful properties (same with CNTs, which you can make with a detonation). Also, realize that they don't have 0 resistance (which is a superconductor), read as "it creates heat". This limits the amount of current that you can drive through it. So there's still a lot of problems that need to be solved. But there are definitely huge interests in also looking at using it for filtering molecules. But this is also difficult to do with precision. And that's the root of the problem, precision and consistency. I know that doesn't exactly answer your question, but all I can say is that it feels like we are close.
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by InclinedPlane on Monday March 05, 2018 @04:41PM
(#16524727)
This is how everything is. It takes years to build up enough experience with something new to learn what it's capable of, it takes more years to learn how to build interesting stuff with it, more years to learn how to adapt manufacturing processes at industrial scales, more years for real products to hit the market, and more years for those product designs to mature and actually reach enough of their potential to be a worthwhile upgrade to "the old way of doing things".
It took almost a century for electric cars to get good, it took almost half a century for reusable rockets to become practical and cost effective, it took decades for lasers to become ubiquitous, it took decades for the internet to mature into a part of daily life, etc, etc, etc.
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by whoisjuan on Monday March 05, 2018 @02:27PM
(#16523643)
Industrial scale production of graphene is still the most challenging area in anything graphene-related. Currently, the are several techniques for large-scale production but nothing large enough that can fit the supply chain of mass-produced goods like batteries.
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by ben_w on Monday March 05, 2018 @01:40PM
(#16523221)
Super-transistor. This may have significant implications outside computing, perhaps a switchable Casimir cavity (how do superconductors respond to non-DC currents?)
I didn’t see a critical temperature for this in the article, only “100K” for related classes of material. Anyone know the Tc of this?
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by emiliobumachar on Monday March 05, 2018 @02:25PM
(#16523625)
Super-transistor? I hate to stomp on innovation, but, mechanically rotating parts of a transistor to switch it would seem like a large step backwards relative to the electrically-switchable status quo.
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by skykooler on Monday March 05, 2018 @03:12PM
(#16523971)
It's switched by a gate voltage.
> The researchers continued to measure the electrical resistance of the material, and found that when they added a certain, small amount of electrons, the electrical current flowed without dissipating energy — just like a superconductor.
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by olympus on Monday March 05, 2018 @02:17PM
(#16523556)
Oh, look. Another great thing that graphene can do.
I'm starting to think that I'll see genetically engineered pro athletes before I get to see graphene powered gadgets. And probably I'll see true human level AI before mass market graphene as well.
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by grzm on Monday March 05, 2018 @04:15PM
(#16524468)
The article you provided mentions that his parents were encouraged to marry.
> The two were encouraged to marry in a system with undertones of eugenics, the controversial gene-pool manipulation espoused by the Nazis and previously trumpeted by Beijing.
> It wasn't a national breeding program, it was a desire among Shanghai officials for them to get together," Larmer said. "But when Yao was born, everybody in the sports community in Shanghai and nationally knew he was something special."
While I agree that's unsavory, that's not what most would consider "genetically engineered."
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by olympus on Monday March 05, 2018 @05:31PM
(#16525168)
Yeah, I meant something along the lines of using CRISPR or a future derivative to make a person genetically predisposed to having the fastest mind, most durable body, and best hand-eye coordination.
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by Phrodo_00 on Monday March 05, 2018 @04:54PM
(#16524823)
> The two were encouraged to marry in a system with undertones of eugenics, the controversial gene-pool manipulation espoused by the Nazis and previously trumpeted by Beijing.
Strangely, no mention of US' being really into it before WWII
It's interesting because it's very high temperature given certain properties of the material; if that is confirmed, it may allow greater understanding of superconductivity, which may allow other materials to work at higher temperatures.
Re:Insulator or superconductor? Physicists find graphene is ...
by IntronExon on Monday March 05, 2018 @07:22PM
(#16525853)
If that’s what floats your boat (sorry) then you might want to look into topological superconductors, which I think might be the way to go. The whole field of topological materials is new enough to hide something surprising and promising.
It’s still very interesting though (as things in Nature usually are). I’m a little surprised no one had looked at electrical conductivity with misaligned vdW epitaxy - it seems like the an obvious thing to look at to me. They’re still using micro mechanical cleavage (ie, peel it off with tape) - maybe it was a cleanliness or size issue? Maybe it’s just easy hindsight.
It took almost a century for electric cars to get good, it took almost half a century for reusable rockets to become practical and cost effective, it took decades for lasers to become ubiquitous, it took decades for the internet to mature into a part of daily life, etc, etc, etc.
Not to say that it's doing much good here...
I didn’t see a critical temperature for this in the article, only “100K” for related classes of material. Anyone know the Tc of this?
My understanding is "Poorly". As in not a superconductor for AC for current superconductors.
> The researchers continued to measure the electrical resistance of the material, and found that when they added a certain, small amount of electrons, the electrical current flowed without dissipating energy — just like a superconductor.
I'm starting to think that I'll see genetically engineered pro athletes before I get to see graphene powered gadgets. And probably I'll see true human level AI before mass market graphene as well.
> The two were encouraged to marry in a system with undertones of eugenics, the controversial gene-pool manipulation espoused by the Nazis and previously trumpeted by Beijing.
> It wasn't a national breeding program, it was a desire among Shanghai officials for them to get together," Larmer said. "But when Yao was born, everybody in the sports community in Shanghai and nationally knew he was something special."
While I agree that's unsavory, that's not what most would consider "genetically engineered."
Strangely, no mention of US' being really into it before WWII
Does this move the needle closer to being able to make the Meissner effect applicable in practical engineering?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meissner_effect
It's interesting because it's very high temperature given certain properties of the material; if that is confirmed, it may allow greater understanding of superconductivity, which may allow other materials to work at higher temperatures.