A team of researchers has amplified 3-D graphene's electrical properties by controlling its curvature.
"Our research showed the conservation and the degradation of the ultra-low dissipative transport of Dirac electrons on the 3-D curved surface for the first time," said Yoichi Tanabe, leading author of the study.
Graphene is a 2-D atomic-layer material, shaped like honeycombs, which possesses excellent electrical, chemical, thermal, and mechanical properties for a wide range of applications such as semiconductors, electrical batteries, and composites.
Graphene sheets stacked together form graphite which makes up the lead in our pencils. However, packing together graphene tightly means it loses its 2-D electronic properties.
One way to overcome this is to separate the graphene sheets with air-filled pores—like a sponge—at the nanometer scale and make it into a three-dimensional structure. This amplifies graphene's properties for practical purposes.
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