Carbon materials

MIT researchers have developed low-cost chemical sensors, made from chemically altered carbon nanotubes, that enable a smartphone or other wireless devices to detect trace amounts of toxic gases.

Wireless, wearable toxic-gas detector

Inexpensive sensors could be worn by soldiers to detect hazardous chemical agents.

June 30, 2016

This illustration depicts the process of light emission from a sheet of graphene, which is represented as the blue lattice on the top surface of a carrier material. The light-colored arrow moving upwards at the center depicts a fast-moving electron. Because the electron is moving faster than light itself, it generates a shock wave, which spews out plasmons, shown as red squiggly lines, in two dire...

Researchers discover new way to turn electricity into light, using graphene

By slowing down light to a speed slower than flowing electrons, researchers create a kind of optical “sonic boom.”

June 13, 2016

An electron microscopy image shows many examples of nanoscrolls. The insert zooms in on a single nanoscroll and reveals its conical nature.

For stronger, lighter, cheaper materials, scroll up

Researchers create perfect nanoscrolls from graphene’s imperfect form.

April 12, 2016

Researchers used the spin of light to guide the flow of optical information. Shining right-circularly polarized light on nanoribbons made of special 2-D materials enables light to flow forward on one edge and backward on the other edge. Changing the polarization of the light causes the guided modes to reverse directions.

New way to control particle motions on 2-D materials

Study points the way to new photonic devices with one-way traffic lanes.

March 21, 2016

In Profile: Pablo Jarillo-Herrero

Experimental physicist explores the wild frontiers of graphene and other ultrathin materials.

February 24, 2016

Researchers used the MIT and Tim the Beaver logos to show photoluminescence emissions from a monolayer of molybdenum disulfide inlayed onto graphene. The arrow indicates the graphene-MoS2 lateral heterostructure, which could potentially form the basis for ultrathin computer chips.

New chip fabrication approach

Depositing different materials within a single chip layer could lead to more efficient computers.

January 27, 2016

In this image, the middle "explosion" is a cloud of hot electrons, inside graphene, that bounce off one another as they reach equilibrium and spread out. The red spheres are those electrons that are energetic enough to escape the hot cloud in less than 30 femtoseconds and generate an electric current. MIT researchers have developed a technique to access and control these ultrafast processes.

Physicists control electrons at femtosecond timescales

Results may help improve efficiency of solar cells, energy-harvesting devices.

January 22, 2016

The atomic-force microscopy (AFM) image on the left demonstrates the physical binding between fibrinogen proteins and single walled carbon nanotubes. The right shows a trace of the AFM image with the fibrinogen in green and nanotubes in light blue.

Synthetic antibody detects proteins

New nanosensors recognize fibrinogen; may detect insulin, other biomarkers as well.

January 13, 2016

By using plasmons to “wiggle” a free electron in a sheet of graphene, researchers have developed a new method for generating X-rays. In this image of one of their simulations, the color and height represent the intensity of radiation (with blue the lowest intensity and red the highest), at a moment in time just after an electron (grey sphere) moving close to the surface generates a pulse.

A new way to make X-rays

MIT researchers have found a phenomenon that might lead to more compact, tunable X-ray devices made of graphene.

November 23, 2015

Materials Processing Center Director Carl V. Thompson addresses the annual Materials Day Symposium, "Quantum Materials," at MIT on Oct. 14.

Quantum materials: A new paradigm for computing?

Diamond spintronics and graphene-based infrared detectors are among leading-edge technologies reported at annual Materials Day Symposium at MIT.

November 6, 2015

Desalination gets a graphene boost

Jeffrey Grossman applies new materials research to making desalination cheaper and more efficient.

November 2, 2015

Researchers created pores in a graphene sheet (in purple) and then placed it over a layer of silicon nitride (in blue) that had been punctured by an ion beam. This allows specific hydrated ions, which are surrounded by a shell of water molecules, to pass through.

Big range of behaviors for tiny graphene pores

Like biological channels, graphene pores are selective for certain types of ions.

October 5, 2015

An uncoated copper condenser tube (top left) is shown next to a similar tube coated with graphene (top right). When exposed to water vapor at 100 degrees Celsius, the uncoated tube produces an inefficient water film (bottom left), while the coated shows the more desirable dropwise condensation (bottom right).

Thin coating on condensers could make power plants more efficient

Graphene layer one atom thick could quadruple rate of condensation heat transfer in generating plants.

May 29, 2015

Measuring hot electrons

MIT graduate student Qiong Ma is uncovering electrical properties of graphene-based devices using laser-light stimulation.

May 26, 2015

Copper substrate is shown in the process of being coated with graphene. At left, the process begins by treating the copper surface, and, at right, the graphene layer is beginning to form. Upper images are taken using visible light microscopy, and lower images using a scanning electron microscope.

How to make continuous rolls of graphene

New manufacturing process could take exotic material out of the lab and into commercial products.

May 21, 2015

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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