3M’s Optical Systems division is making a optically clear barrier films that protect sensitive electronics from water vapour and oxygen commercially available for the first time
Materials R&D
Thin polymer to extend OLED display life?
A polymer discovered at Georgia Tech could allow air-stable electrodes to be used in OLED displays. At the moment, efficient OLED displays need to have low 'work function' metals as internal electrodes, which are all reactive metals like...
Modified graphene beats ITO as see-though conductor
University of Exeter researchers have improved graphene as a transparent conductor to the point that it can beat ITO. The key is ferric Chloride (FeCl3). Layers of graphene (2-5 atomic layers thick) are flaked from...
Silicene: single-layer silicon works like graphene
After only a few years basking in the limelight, wonder material graphene has a competitor in the shape of silicene. For the first time, silicon has been turned into a sheet just one atom thick. Silicene is thought to...
Printable solar cells from cadmium selenide nanocrystals
Solar cell ink could come from research on soluble nanocrystals of CdSe. The crystals are around 4nm across, and the innovation is in preserving them at that size without..
Carbon monoxide on copper mimics graphene
US researchers have produced graphene-like behaviour from copper and carbon monoxide. "The behaviour of electrons in materials is at the heart of essentially all of today's...
Printed electronics needs better alignment
The best performing printed electronic devices have particular molecular alignments within their structure. "In transistors, we found that as the alignment between molecules increased, so did ...
Science: LHC smashes particle collision record
The Large Hadron Collider has woken from its winter slumber with a bang. Just after midnight local time on 5 April, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, based near Geneva, Switzerland, shattered its own world record by smashing protons together with a combined energy of 8 teraelectronvolts (TeV).
Graphene ready for commercialisation
Graphene is ready for commercialisation, according to a series of presentations yesterday at the Centre for Graphene Science set up by the Universities of Bath and Exeter.
Science: Microbes from river help produce graphene sheets
Graphene is cool stuff. Researchers around the world are studying the single-atom layers of carbon, and the American Physical Society's March meeting in Boston devoted 40 sessions to the topic.
