Two days ago, Tuesday, Oct. 5, it was announced the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 Andrei Geim and Novoselov Konstantin, two Russian scientists working at the University of Manchester, UK. To motivate the prestigious award, years of research and experiments which have led, in 2004, the discovery of graphene, a material property to nothing short of amazing and different applications technology, ranging from electronics biomedical engineering.
This material 'Wonderland' is nothing but a form of carbon. The novelty lies in the fact that in graphene, the carbon is arranged in thin sheets, the thickness of a single atom: it is basically a two-dimensional material. In our world of three dimensions, a thickness so small it is virtually impossible to imagine, if stacked one above the other about a million sheets of graphene, we reach the thickness of an ordinary sheet of paper! It is precisely because of its infinitesimal third dimension to this material, whose existence was predicted as early as 1947, took decades before they can be isolated in the laboratory.
Depending on how the carbon atoms bind to each other, this gives rise to a number of different materials, the most famous among them are the diamond and graphite. In diamond, carbon atoms form a very resistant glass, placing them in a structure whose basic unit is the tetrahedron, a solid with four triangular faces. The graphite, which can be found in pencils, is very different from diamond, although both are formed from carbon atoms. In graphite, the atoms are arranged in a series of layers with a honeycomb structure, where the unit of base is a hexagon, and the various layers are held together with each other by a relationship between the electrons belonging to different atoms, the bonds that hold the atoms in each layer are much stronger than those that hold together the different layers, and That is why, unlike diamond, graphite flakes easily.
Graphene is a single layer that constitutes the structure of graphite, in a way that vaguely recalls the layers of a wafer. Many suspected that, once isolated, such a structure in two dimensions would be curled in on itself and would not remain permanently in flat form. Geim and Novoselov, however, persisted for years in their search, until in 2004 they developed a seemingly simple experiment: they have used the common adhesive tape and a piece of graphite with adhesive tape, were able to hew out of the graphite layers of carbon one-atom thick graphene, in fact.
Because of the way in which its atoms are arranged, graphene is an excellent conductor of both electricity and heat, and therefore has found immediate application in the electronics industry, also has properties of semi-conductor and This can be used in the production of transistors. Recent studies have shown that this material is also the strongest in the world, yet is extremely malleable, and in addition is virtually transparent to those grounds, would be most suitable for making screens and displays.
The directors of the discovery were both born in the Soviet Union and have worked together for many years, first in Nijmegen, Holland, Novoselov, where he obtained his doctorate under the guidance of their Geim, and then at the University Manchester. The discovery of graphene have arrived in the typical way that is the basis of scientific research: always trying new and different solutions, which sometimes worked and sometimes not, but that he always learn something you did not know before. In this case, the efforts have proved extremely successful: in 2008 the discoverers of graphene were among favorites for the Nobel Prize, which has finally arrived in 2010. The Committee awarded the Nobel Foundation in particular the creative genius that has characterized many of their experiments, which led to a discovery turned out to be hugely important for a growing number of applications to everyday life.
Since the discovery, Geim and Novoselov have also been very open in sharing with the rest of the scientific community the results, as shown on the site
PhysicsWorld.com Institute of Physics, where he also tells as the two have formed a new generation of physicists and invited many scientists from the University of Manchester and providing them with the knowledge they acquired on the methods for producing graphene. To present them, the Institute of Physics
decided to open up access to all articles published scientific by two physicists on specialized magazines published by this institution.
addition to the congratulations of physicists and scientists around the world are focused on Geim and Novoselov eyes of the entire scientific community in Britain. In the UK, in fact, scientific research and academic institutions are currently threatened by heavy cuts in funding. There are numerous campaigns to protest against these measures in place, including the operation
Science is Vital , which will see thousands of scientists and members of civil society paraded through the streets of London on Saturday, October 9.
After the award of the Nobel Prize to two excellent professors from a British university, many are hoping that the prestigious, rewarding not only a discovery of multiple industrial applications and technology but also the intense and extensive research efforts that preceded it, bring a message to the policy, showing once again the immense value of scientific research in society.
CLAUDIA MIGNONE
