New nanomaterial `may help speed up technology`

Melbourne: Researchers have produced a new two-dimensional material that they believe could revolutionise the electronics market with thinner, faster and lighter gadgets. Silicon chips have reached their limit in terms of speed and ability to store an electrical charge, the Daily Telegraph reported.

But RMIT University and CSIRO researchers have made a new flat material, made up of layers of crystal known as molybdenum oxides, which has properties that encourage the free flow of electrons at ultra-high speeds. According to them, this could boost the speed of communication and capacitance, the ability to store an electrical charge, using the same size chips as are used today. IN the new study, they explain how they adapted the ground-breaking material graphene to create a new conductive nanomaterial. Graphene was created in 2004, and was touted as the two dimensional material of the future, winning its UK inventors a Nobel Prize in 2010. However, some of its physical properties prevent it from being used for high-speed electronics. The CSIRO’s Serge Zhuiykov said the new nanomaterial was made up of layered sheets similar to the graphite layers that make up the core of a pencil. Zhuiykov said that the importance of the new discovery is how quickly electrons that conduct electricity are able to flow through the new material. The only thing stopping that from happening will be the ability of the software developers to write new programs which make the most of these speeds. The study has been published in the journal Advanced Materials. ANI