Materials scientists go flat out.By isolating single layers from materials with naturally layered structures, physicists in England and Russia have created what they say are the world's thinnest freestanding materials, some just one atom thick. The liberated layers are surprisingly robust, persisting as flat sheets at room temperature and preserving their crystalline structures, the scientists report in the July 26 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences. . What's more, the freed sheets can differ from their parent materials in key properties. "It's really the thinnest material possible," says Kostya S. Novoselov of the University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a university located in Manchester, England. With over 40,000 students studying 500 academic programmes, more than 10,000 staff and an annual income of nearly £600 million it is the largest single-site University in the United Kingdom and receives in England. So far, the scientists have whittled down five industrial materials to such skimpy skimp·y adj. skimp·i·er, skimp·i·est 1. Inadequate, as in size or fullness, especially through economizing or stinting: a skimpy meal. 2. Unduly thrifty; niggardly. dimensions. The substances include the solid lubricant molybdenum disulfide Molybdenum disulfide, also called molybdenum sulfide or molybdenum(IV) sulfide, with the formula MoS2, is a black crystalline sulfide of molybdenum and one of several compounds known as transition metal dichalcogenides. and a bismuth-based superconductor A material that has little resistance to the flow of electricity. Traditional superconductors operate at absolute zero (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit or -273.15 degrees Celsius). Experiments in the 1980s raised the temperature to -321 degrees Fahrenheit. (SN: 11/18/00, p. 330). While the longest stretches of thin materials to date span scarcely a tenth of a millimeter, the researchers foresee making larger pieces. Among the potential applications for the structures are micromachines that flex under electrical stimulation and novel transistors and sensors. |
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