Almost 50 years ago, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore came up with a little idea called Moore’s Law, which basically says that computer processors roughly double in efficiency every two years due to advances in technology along with affordability. So how much smaller, faster and cheaper can computers go? Lots, if graphene, the nanomaterial of the new millennium, has anything to say about that.
Discovered just a few years ago, graphene is only the thickness of one atom but it scores on strength and it can function as a conductor. One difficulty to overcome, though, is manipulating “raw” graphene on an atomic level to create a useful material. With support from the National Science Foundation, researchers at the University of South Florida have accomplished a breakthrough of sorts by developing a way to form precise graphene “nanowires” that are just a few atoms across.