Graphene is the strongest and thinnest material known to man; new research may have found a way to better-utilize it.
The promising carbon-based material is only one-atom thick and has the ability to conduct electricity as well as copper, an American Institute of Physics news release reported.
Graphene materials could have a wide range of applications such as allowing for faster Internet, super-strong spacesuits, and cheaper solar cells.
A research team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working to bring these innovations closer to reality by searching for an ideal growing platform for graphene.
In their research the team found a perfect "recipe" for creating graphene substrate. This formula consists of a "thin film of copper with massive crystalline grains," the news release reported.
In order for this recipe to work, the grain size of the copper must be correct.
The successful grain must be "several centimeters in size," which is relatively large as far as microelectronics goes. Their size is so important because they must be large enough to withstand the high temperatures necessary in growing graphene.
"[The inability of most copper films to survive this stage of graphene growth] has been one problem preventing wafer-scale production of graphene devices," NIST researcher Mark Keller said.
A number of industries are on the hunt for thinner films; they are an essential component in a wide array of "electronic, optical, and medical technologies," the news release reported.
The grains in today's films are generally smaller than one micrometer; the research team was able to come up with a two-step process to create a copper surface that has grains 10,000 times larger.
In the first step they applied copper to a slightly warmer than room temperature sapphire wafer, they then heated the film at a higher temperature where it met the copper.
"To demonstrate the viability of their giant-grained film, the researchers successfully grew graphene grains 0.2 millimeters in diameter on the new copper surface," the news release reported.
