A new miracle material could end cracked smart devices

A new hybrid device that is able to conduct electricity at unprecedented speeds and are light, durable and easy to manufacture in large scale semiconductor plants.

Miracle material

The team produces a unique material technology by combining semiconducting molecules, C60 with layered materials, graphene and hBN, which could revolutionize the concept of smart devices.

This process called vander Waals solids, allows compounds to be brought together and assembled in a pre-defined way.

hBN material provides stability, electronic compatibility and isolation charge to graphene, while C60 can transform sunlight into electricity.



Dr. Elton Santos from Queen"s University, said, the new "miracle material" has similar physical properties to Silicon, but it has improved chemical stability, lightness and flexibility, which could potentially be used in smart devices and would be much less likely to break.

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The project started from the simulation side, where researchers predicted hBN, graphene and C60 molecules that could result in a solid with remarkable new physical and chemical properties.

band gap

The findings open the doors for further exploration of new materials. One issue that still needs to be solved with the team"s current research is that graphene and the new material architecture is lacking a "band gap", which is the key to the on-off switching operations performed by electronic devices.

However, the Dr. Santos team is already looking at a potential solution, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), as they are very chemically stable, have large sources for production and band gaps that rival Silicon.

More information: [ACS NANO]